China’s ‘Tesla’ of the art industry: tech investor to open digital robotics studio to help artists

By Elaine Yau

In late 2013, Korean-American tech investor Jung Lee opened an art gallery called Ren Space in a century-old building in the historic Huangpu neighbourhood in Shanghai. The avid art collector, who splits his time between Silicon Valley and China, wanted to create a new gallery model that could give contemporary artists the support they needed – both technical and financial – to be more experimental.

Ren Space has worked successfully with established artists such as Zhang Peili, widely known as the “father of Chinese video art”, to finance and help with the fabrication, promotion and distribution of artworks. But Lee still finds that his attempt to disrupt the industry – by setting up an art gallery – has resulted in the equivalent of Toyota’s Prius, when what is needed is a Tesla.

A Miralab robot works on an art piece. Photo: Miralab

The Prius was the first mass-produced electronic hybrid vehicle when it was introduced in 1997, Lee, a former banker and entertainment executive turned angel investor, says. Despite the spectacular growth in the electric car market, the Japanese carmaker has yet to come up with a fully electric model. Instead,

the leader in the field is Tesla, which was still a relatively new start up when it produced its first car in 2008...READ MORE

Cover Image: A robot at Miralab, a new digital robotics studio in China, carves an art piece. Photo: Miralab

The original title of the article is "China’s ‘Tesla’ of the art industry: tech investor to open digital robotics studio to help artists fulfil their visions".