UOB Art Gallery | Quincy Li

Brief
Since the 1970s, UOB has been committed to working for the creation and promotion of art in Southeast Asia, and now it hopes that UOB Art Gallery in Shanghai become a major art platform in Asia. Art and commerce, it is like an ideal marriage where chemical reactions with catalysts will occur. Today, in the bustling business district of Lujiazui, Shanghai, UOB wishes to create a permanent independent art space on the ground floor of its headquarters building to present its corporate philosophy, namely, "the way of art is the same with the way of banking". BNJN Design, the designer, compares metaphorically this banking giant’s project to the "Fourth Plinth" in London's Trafalgar Square.

Project Description
Exterior
In the process of transformation between London and Shanghai, UOB Art Gallery has changed the western stone column into oriental bricks most of which are designed to curve inside or bulge outside, which echoes with the facade of UOB’s building. Basically the finished brick wall, set above the gallery entrance and carefully enclosed by a glass cover, is kind of a serious work of art-it’s just like the eastern version of “Fourth Plinth” here in Shanghai, which from time to time, might provoke the visitor’s curiosity: Whose art is going be displayed today?

Display
Into the gallery, the long, narrow space is divided by moving walls, the built-in display shelves can be flipped when needed, and thus the artworks can be presented from different angles, so the visitors will often be surprised as when walking around. Meanwhile, different artworks can also dialogue with each other through the openings in the moving walls. Due to the flexibility of the presenting angles, a wide range of changes and artistic richness can be appreciated in a fixed space.

Leisure
On the window side of the gallery, BNJN designed a row of seats and the wooden ceiling of the grille above, which echoes with the neat and tidy lines around, giving visitors a comfortable place to rest and communicate.

Staircase
Compared to the white gallery space, the staircase is equipped with linear metal surface embedded with LED light strips, which draw the visitor’s attention back to the world of finance for a moment, where the concept of “the way of art is also the way of banking” is perfectly interpreted.

Education （2nd floor）
The second floor has a multi-functional art space that can accommodate a small art sharing session, which BNJN hopes will be full of possibilities, and it also encourages the participation of staffs and the public and eventually provides more opportunities for the art enthusiasts from all walks of life.