Guangzhou’s 10 Best Contemporary Art Galleries and Museums

For a Guangzhou newcomer the Guangdong Times Museum, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Alain Fouraux in 2010, can be hard to locate. The non-profit museum takes up the ground and top floors of a residential apartment block, an architectural innovation that not only puts less pressure on Guangzhou’s sorely limited real estate, but also informs the culture and practice of the museum itself. Self-defining as a ‘product of artists’/architects’ imaginations’, the museum’s open attitude towards related disciplines such as architecture and urban planning can be seen in many of its exhibitions. Since its 2010 opening, the museum has brought innovative international artists like Pipilotti Rist and Adel Abdessemed to Guangzhou. Guangdong Times Museum is also unafraid to risk controversy: the 2013 exhibition Autonomous Regions invited artists to consider the idea of autonomy in contemporary art, a contentious topic for a nation where artists and activists can still fall foul of the authorities for being too enthusiastically autonomous.

If Guangzhou’s art scene is characterised by its freewheeling and wayward attitude, then Loft 345 in many ways encapsulates the spirit of the city. Less art gallery, more ‘subcultural space’ hidden away in suburbia, Loft 345 welcomes all manner of creatives to come and spend time in the space’s studio. Artists mingle with academics, musicians and graffiti artists in the fifth floor bar, which also doubles as Loft 345’s exhibition area. With graffiti-covered walls and blaring music, Loft 345 can at first appear a little unorthodox for an art space; but don’t be fooled, as it’s one of Guangzhou’s longest running art spaces, having been established under the name Park19 in 2003. Since then it has staged numerous quirky exhibitions and welcomed hundreds of artists from around the world to spend time in its ‘living room for Guangzhou’s free thinkers.’

In 2002, the Guangdong Museum of Arttook control of the Guangzhou Biennial, turning the event into a triennial and, simultaneously, setting out its stall as the establishment face of the city’s contemporary art scene. Calling itself ‘a major cultural establishment in the Province and the largest of its kind in China’, Guangdong Museum of Art collects and shows both ancient and modern works of art from the region and holds over 60 shows a year, in addition to maintaining a permanent display collection. The Museum of Art also collects work by contemporary artists from China and the Chinese diaspora, with particular focus on those based in the Pearl River Delta. Works by long-time Guangzhou residents such as Xu Tan and Chen Shaoxiong can be seen at the Museum, and there’s also a large outdoor sculpture garden dotted with contemporary works.