Asian Art Forum

Gary,

I was in China for the first time in late 2003 and I remember seeing so much great artwork for sale there. I wished at the time that I had a way of bringing the works of these talented artists back to the US for myself to enjoy and to also provide a better income to the artists by selling their works in the US. Now I see that you have done exactly that and Im very jealous of your success. It seems that if you can just make enough money to support your travels and keep healthy, you will have quite a life of adventure.
After a long three years, I am finally making another trip to Shanghai next month. This time I am traveling as light as possible so that Im sure to have room for some paintings on the return trip. Do you have any advice on getting paintings back to the states?

My wife Weijia and I will be having our second wedding in Shanghai on December 28th. (Her family was unable to come to your first wedding). If you happen to be in Shanghai at that time you are certainly invited to attend.

Best of luck to you on many more years of success.

Semper Fi,

Shawn

You're going to want to pick up one or two black plastic artwork tubes. You can find them in any art market in China - you'll see the red bands at either end of the tubes, and a nice carrying strap. There are three sizes available - depending on your needs. Prices can be negotiated to 35 Yuan for the large size (I'm a good negotiator, you might pay 40-45 depending on how aggressive you want to be). Shanghai is the most expensive place in all of China, so those tubes could be crazy expensive there (like everything else is).

If you buy raw artwork on plain xuan paper, and bring it back to the states, no framer will know what to do with it.

Whether you want wall scrolls, or portraits (to be framed upon your return to the states), be sure to get the mounting done in China. There's a mounter at most art markets where you can pick out some nice silk brocade for the borders.

Important note: If you wait and try to find a mounting shop in the USA, it's often $200 to build a single wall scroll! DO IT IN CHINA

The thickening by adding more sheets of xuan paper during the mounting process is necessary to give the artwork enough "body" to be framed.

If you get in a pinch, you can send your artwork to our mounting workshop in Beijing. Be warned that our quality standards are a bit higher, and thus cost a bit more than some other mounters ($20 and up for wall scrolls, $8 and up for portraits). Some mounting shops charge about half that.

When we take work like this remotely, about a quarter of that cost, as quoted above is "admin overhead", basically that covers the handling and packing, as well as a couple dollars for my pocket. Shipping costs back to you in Shanghai, or back to the USA is additional.
We don't actually want to promote this service, as it kind of derails efforts to mount our own artwork. So I'm not trying to sell you on that - you'll get a better price shopping around for yourself, while you are in China.

Cheers,
-Gary.