When Jeanni and I got off the subway, we found ourselves in a residential area. Knowing that I was terrible with directions, Jeanni questioned whether we were in the right place and to be honest, even I doubted myself a little, but I just smiled and replied with a confident “of course!” Interestingly, the area around the subway station reminded Jeanni of Korea while it reminded me strongly of Hong Kong. Perhaps, these east Asian countries are not too different after all.
Finding the street came with some difficulties because the street sign read M50 and not Moganshan, but once we entered the street, there was no mistaking that we had arrived. This was not because there was a large amount of galleries right at the mouth of the street, on the contrary there was nothing but rundown warehouses. However, on the wall that ran along the street, was the some of the best graffiti that I have seen and the first time I had seen graffiti in Shanghai. There was something strange about the graffiti in Moganshan Lu though, everything was just too organized. Unlike the graffiti that I had seen in LA, which was a mess of overlapping pieces, the graffiti artists of Moganshan Lu seemed to respect each other’s space. Very little of the graffiti overlapped and it was almost as if the artists were allotted a portion of the wall. Not sure if I like the “organized” style because it makes the whole graffiti wall seem staged and runs counter to my perception of graffiti being a chaotic art form.
Graffiti Wall
My initial impression of the galleries was quite negative. The first few galleries that I stepped into displayed very abstract art that did not suit me at all. At that point in time, it was all very disappointing and I felt that Moganshan Lu was quickly becoming another disappointment in Shanghai. Besides maybe one gallery, all the galleries at the beginning of the street were terrible. I remember at one gallery, I found the paint job on the walls more interesting than the art pieces.
Then I arrived at M50 and was blown away. M50 is the area where the galleries all reside. The address for the group of galleries is 50 Moganshan Lu, hence the name M50. The galleries are housed in a giant renovated warehouse, where long dark hallways and bare brick walls were the norm. Everything you see in the galleries can be bought for the right price. Original art pieces ran from just under a thousand to tens of thousands of US dollars. As I looked at canvas after canvas, all I could think was “maybe one day,” I think I have found what to hang on the wall of my coffee shop.
After two hours of gallery hopping, Jeanni and I were oversaturated with art, by that I mean piece after piece was starting to look the same and I had ceased to appreciate what I was seeing. Sitting in the nearby extremely overpriced (and bad) coffee shop with Jeanni, I mulled over what I had seen. I noticed that in many of the pieces, Communism and Buddhism were prevalent themes, which is to be expected. In addition, many of the pieces dealt with the conflict of modern China with its ancient roots. If M50 is truly representative of Chinese modern art, then I am very excited for the future.
Hallway of galleries
A few days later, I went back to Moganshan Lu with Crystal and it seems that the magic just does not wear off. I repeated some galleries and found some pieces that I had missed the first time around, as well as visited many new galleries. This time around, I was a bit bolder about taking photographs where I was not supposed to and; Crystal and I had a lot of fun with that. At the end of two hours of gallery hopping with Crystal, I realized that Jeanni and I had not covered the majority of galleries at all. Even after a second day at M50, there was still a great deal to see.
One of my favorite pieces at M50
Crystal posing next to a sad star
I wonder when my third M50 trip will be.
-muffinman
Moganshan Lu Photos
