Tastemaking Gallery Capsule Shanghai Champions Talent over Trends

For Enrico Polato, following artistic trends is not part of his approach as a gallerist. Rather, trends matter only in the sense that he seeks to deviate from or subvert them—something that has shaped his program at Capsule Shanghai, the gallery he founded in 2016.

“If there’s a kind of art that’s trendy at the moment or more favorable in the market, rather than being attracted to follow the trend, I try to withdraw from it and do something different because I prefer to have an independent voice,” the Italian gallerist told Artsy.

Located in a 1930s residential space in the former French Concession area of downtown Shanghai, the gallery’s philosophy is based on a simple premise: Polato wanted to work with emerging artists, and he wanted to do so in a space where he could nurture and grow with them.

“The idea behind Capsule—why I called it that—was I had in mind a time capsule, a program that talks about the present, talks about contemporary times, but also is a portrait of what we’re living now for people in the future,” he explained. “That portrait isn’t of current whims, but of individual bodies and practices that signify something different, with a narrative thread that can be followed across entire careers, as times and trends change.”

In the beginning, Polato worked with a number of Chinese artists who were living abroad or returning from overseas, and expanded this approach to bring international artists into his adopted home. “The idea was really to work with artists on a long-term basis,” he said. “So I’m quite happy and proud that most of the artists I started my journey with are still part of the program of the gallery today.” The gallery predominantly focuses on solo exhibitions that allow its emerging artists to shine. With a gallery space comprised of multiple small rooms, Polato loves being able to showcase these works in a space that mirrors a practical living environment.

The next stage would be to champion this local talent on an international stage by showing them at art fairs across the globe. With the art world opening up fully since the pandemic, the gallery has been more than making up for lost time this year.

Polato indicates that by the end of 2023, Capsule will have participated in at least 12 art fairs, including several for the first time. Thus far, this includes Art SG in Singapore in January; Zona Maco in Mexico City in February; Art Basel in Hong Kong in March; miart in Milan and Art Brussels in April; Taipei Dangdai and Frieze New York in May; and Liste Art Fair Basel in June. With the idea of “fairtigue” permeating the art world prior to the onset of the pandemic, the format of engaging collectors and selling art is a strategy that is very much in play for the gallery.

The gallery’s booth curation is similar to its approach to gallery shows: “Over the past few years, I have tried to give a chance to every artist ​in the program to have a solo show at the gallery in Shanghai and a solo presentation at an international fair,” Polato said.

For a gallery whose roster is heavily made of emerging and mid-career artists, participating in a large number of fairs with solo presentations can be considered a gamble, but Polato is philosophical in playing the long game: “One of the main takeaways of these experiences as a gallerist is that you need to take some risks, or you will never know how things can actually be,” he said. “I participated in fairs in places that I wasn’t familiar with at all, where I didn’t have any sort of connections, but in most cases, I managed to establish new ones.”

While he has experienced varying degrees of sales at fairs, some fairs have opened up connections to local areas. “There are so many variables and it’s hard to make conclusions right after a fair is over—in some cases, people have reached out months after the fair,” he noted. “Nothing comes in an easy way, but everything comes with some strategy as a foundation. You just need to jump in the water and learn how to swim.”