COURTESY LEVY GORVY
Lévy Gorvy will expand to Asia with a new office in Shanghai, the gallery announced in a press release. The space will be run by a new senior director, Asia Danqing Li, who comes from Christie’s, where she worked in the postwar and contemporary department in Shanghai and connected the house with collectors in mainland China.
“We are delighted to welcome Danqing Li to our international team,” Lévy Gorvy’s co-founder, Brett Gorvy, said in a statement. “Having worked with her for many years in Asia during my tenure at Christie’s, I have always admired the depth of her knowledge and her unique sensitivity not only to art but to the cross-cultural connections it creates. It’s an honor to welcome her to the Lévy Gorvy family.”
Li worked at Christie’s under Gorvy, who was the chairman of the department before leaving to form Lévy Gorvy with Dominique Lévy in late 2016. While there, Li helped orchestrate a Shanghai sale in 2013—the house’s first in mainland China—and collaborated with local institutions on exhibitions and projects.
In her new role she’ll work on behalf of the gallery in a similar manner, though the office will have no formal gallery space for exhibitions. In addition to strengthening client relations in the region, the gallery will use the office as a launching board for projects in China—in 2019, it will bring the reformed gallery’s inaugural exhibition, “Willem de Kooning | Zao Wou-Ki,” to the country.
While Beijing is known for having mainland China’s on-the-rise gallery scene, Shanghai has a number of contemporary art institutions, such as the Power Station of Art, the Long Museum, and K11 Art Museum. Some blue-chip galleries, such as Lisson, have Shanghai-based directors to work locally with collectors.
“It is my great honor to join Lévy Gorvy,” Li said in the statement. “Both Dominique and Brett are leading experts in the art market, admired internationally for representing masterpieces and advising leading private collections. I look forward to working very closely with them to provide exceptional services to collectors in Asia, helping them build extraordinary collections across the region and create a bridge for Asian artists and institutions to connect the broader world.”