SHANGHAI.- From September 7th to the 10th Shanghai is the place where all art lovers should be as SH Contemporary—Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair— discloses the world's most compelling choice of Chinese and Asian contemporary art alongside a selection of Western artists and galleries.

Under the new direction of Massimo Torrigiani, the 5th edition of the fair has gathered an unprecedented group of established and emerging galleries from China presenting mostly previously unseen works in the striking Shanghai Exhibition Center, punctuated this year by a surprising curatorial programme with works and projects by over 40 artists.

All leading Chinese galleries have confirmed their participation, together with a selected group of other Asian and Western galleries, totaling up to 90 participants. Among others: Beijing Art Now, Beijing Commune, Boers-Li, Eigen+Art, Galleria Continua, Long March, James Cohan, Lin & Lin, Nature Morte, Pace, Pearl Lam Galleries Fine Art, Pekin Fine Arts, Platform China, Red Gate with Island 6, Shanghart, Soka, Star, Tang Contemporary, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Tina Keng/TKG+ and Triumph.

The show is completed by a row of young galleries and by a small but sharp group of photography galleries including 2902 from Singapore; Shanghai's Kunstlicht, M97, Ofoto and Vanguard; MC2 and Photology from Milan. Representing the forefront of a new programme on photography, with solo shows and round tables (hosted by M on the Bund) and introducing the first edition of the Asia Pacific Photography Prize.

SH Contemporary 2011 special projects—developed by an international curatorial team lead by Arthub Asia (Defne Ayas, Davide Quadrio, Qiu Zhijie)—are divided in 4 sections:

- Hot Spots features monumental and site-specific projects by established artists Birdhead (Song Tao and Ji Weiyu), Carsten Nicolai, He An, Heman Chong, Kan Xuan, Lee Kit, Zhuang Hui & Dan Er, Liang Yuanwei, Zhou Xiaohu, Jiang Zhi, and Qiu Zhijie, Arthub Asia co-director, teacher and pioneering artist who will work with his students on site during the construction of the fair to create one of his signature installations. The section is complemented by "Now Ink," a prelude exhibition—which will be expanded in 2012—on ink painting and calligraphy-related contemporary art works by Bai Yiluo, Chen Qi, FX Harsono, Jennifer Wen Ma, Kan Xuan and Yangjiang Group (Zheng Guogu, Chen Zaiyan and Sun Qinglin) and Qin Feng.

- First Issue introduces new artists eventually still only locally presented or that only recently touched upon the international artistic arena. For this edition the focus is on artists based in China, represented mostly by young galleries, who had their first solo shows in 2010-11. Among them: Chen Ching-Yuan, Doublefly, Liu Gang, Lu Yang, Lv Miao, Song Chen, Xu Zhe, Ye Nan, Zheng Qiang.

- A dynamic Video Room programme features hourly screenings selected by a special team of curators, including Modern Weekly editorial director Shaway Yeh (Shanghai), Leap magazine editor Philip Tinari (Beijing), Shanghai-based curator Leo Xu, and a selection from the Latest awards from Loop Fair (Barcelona) by Violeta Janeiro Alfageme

- This year will also see the first installment of the Search project, initiated Rogue Art's Adeline Ooi, Beverly Yong and Rachel Ng (Malaysia) and supported for SH Contemporary by the Indonesian Art for International Biennale (Jakarta): a display of the ways in which contemporary Southeast Asian art is categorized and represented through literature, exhibitions, archival projects, the market, the media and more.