Davidoff Art Dialogues encourage an open exchange of information and ideas among artists, collectors, professionals, and newcomers to the world of art. From the current landscape in Caribbean or Latin American art, to the evolution of art markets in various countries, to art collecting and investing, these events address timely questions in contemporary art. Where possible, the dialogues are organized in collaboration with recognized museums and cultural institutions worldwide which have active links to the art community and the general public in their respective regions. Future occasions will take place in Davidoff’s own facilities, including the company’s lounges and stores, which are locatedin major cities around the world. Transcripts of all Davidoff Art Dialogues are available online.

Pascal Meccariello

Pascal Meccariello (b. 1968, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is the first Dominican artist to take part in the Davidoff Art Residency Program at Red Gate Residency in Beijing (until 30 June 2014). Meccariello is a multidisciplinary artist working in installation, drawing, ceramic, video art,photography and performance. He has exhibited his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions inside the Dominican Republic and abroad, and is the recipient of multiple awards and honours, including a Fulbright Scholarship, a UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary for Artists, and Grand Prize at the XV National Biennial of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo. Meccariello’s work focuses on deconstructing abstract concepts such as freedom and justice in contemporary society.

Philip Tinari

Philip Tinari is director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. There he oversees an exhibition program devoted to established figures and rising talents both Chinese and international, aimed at an annual public of more than half a million visitors. Prior to joining UCCA in 2011 he was founding editorial director of the bilingual, international art magazine LEAP, published by Modern Media. He previously served as China advisor to Art Basel, founding editor of Artforum’s Chinese-language edition artforum.com.cn, and lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has written and lectured extensively on contemporary art in China, and sits on advisory boards including the Guggenheim Asian Art Council and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center gallery committee. In March, he curated the Focus: China section of The Armory Show in New York.

András Szántó

András Szántó, New York-based, Budapest-born writer, researcher, has advised the Davidoff Art Initiative since its inception in 2012. The co-author and editor of five books, Szántó is a contributing editor for The Art Newspaper and co-founder of ArtworldSalon. His writings on art markets and institutions have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Artforum, and many other publications. He had been the director of the National Arts Journalism Program and the NEA Arts Journalism Institute at Columbia University, and has lectured on art business and marketing at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He advises leading museums, foundations, and corporations worldwide on culturalstrategies. He is the moderator of the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium and a frequent moderator of the Art Basel Conversations series.

Emma Karasz

Emma Karasz was born in 1989 in New York City and came to China for the first time when she was 15. Shortly after completing her liberal arts degree in the United States, she moved to Beijing on a Fulbright language scholarship. Over the last two years in Beijing, she has devoted much of her time to promoting cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world. She became Program Coordinator of Red Gate Residency in 2013.

Since graduating from England’s Bath Academy of Art in 1976 (where he was taught by the modern masters Frank Auerbach and Howard Hodgkin) Michael Downs has exhibited his striking and unusual shaped paintings in over 30 solo shows and 200 group shows in twenty countries around the world, including the Pompidou Centre, Paris, the Centro de Cultura Contemporanea, Barcelona, the Barbican Centre, London and the Osaka Triennale of Painting in Japan. In 1990, Michael Downs moved to Australia where he gained his MFA at the University of New South Wales and, soon after, became Head of Drawing and then Head of Postgraduate Studies at the National Art School, Sydney.

Sean Lu

Sean Lu is Co-Founder of the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, a dramatic building designed by Steven Holl in the Sifang Parkland formerly known as the China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture, which contains buildings by many of the world’s leading architects. Sifang opened in November 2013 and aims to show work by leading Chinese and international artists a stunning natural context.

Qiao Zhibing

Qiao Zhibing is one of China’s best known art collectors with interests in practices ranging from Zhang Enli and Yang Fudong to Olafur Eliasson and Antony Gormley. He is currently working to build the Oil Tank Contemporary Art Center on Shanghai’s West Bund, the latest in a cluster of private initiatives in that city’s newest arts district.

Wan Jie

Wan Jie is the Founder, Chairman and President of Artron Art Group, which is the leading printer and provider of art-related data and analytics of China. He is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, founder and director of the Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, and a leading voice for the arts among entrepreneurial circles. Artron’s annual Art Awards of China is among China’s most prestigious art prizes.

The Davidoff Art Initiative supports contemporary art and artists in the Caribbean, strengthens art organizations in the Dominican Republic, shares knowledge and expertise about contemporary art, and fosters cultural engagement between the Caribbean and the rest of the world.

The Davidoff Art Initiative aims to make a contribution to the cultural community of the Dominican Republic, where much of the company’s production and many of its employees are based, bringing opportunity and visibility to the art and culture of the Caribbean region and extending the company’s long-standing commitment toartistry, craftsmanship, community, and quality.

The Davidoff Art Initiative’s four global program areas are: Davidoff Art Residency, Davidoff Art Dialogues, Davidoff Art Grants, and Davidoff Art Editions.

For more information, please visit: www.davidoffartinitiative.com