Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA)
Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts (UCCA) was born from the conjunction of two complementary passions of Guy Ullens: Art and China. An art lover for ever, Guy Ullens has been collecting since the 1960’s. He was also one of the very first western entrepreneurs to visit China in the early 1980’s. Fascinated by Chinese culture and its artists, he started some forty years ago what became the first world leading Chinese modern and contemporary art collection, with some thousand works. To support the young Chinese art scene and the museum development in China, the Ullens established the Ullens Center for Contemporary Arts (UCCA) in Beijing in 2007. The museum became soon the leading contemporary art center in China. Designed by Architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, in the walls of a former factory of the famous 798 district, UCCA’s façade has been redesigned recently by Rem Koolhaas. The museum is directed since 2011 by American Chinese spoken curator Philipp Tinari. The programs highlight the work of the emerging Chinese creation, and open the gates of China to leading western artists. In 2016, Guy and Myriam Ullens have opened the capital of UCCA to a Chinese Investment fund, while remaining shareholders, to accelerate the expansion of UCCA: the museum already opened a second branch in Beidaihe, before opening soon a third space in Shanghai. In 2019, UCCA presented the very first Picasso retrospective in China.
