Paintings With Pinot.(International Edition; SOCIETY & THE ARTS)(art galleries teaming up with wine distributors)

Byline: Manuela Zoninsein and Sophie Grove

Galleries are teaming up with wine and spirits distributors to lure young new art buyers.

To the casual observer, the March 7 gathering at Beijing's Philippe Starck-designed LAN Club looked like the start of any Saturday night. Members of the city's business and cultural elite, dressed to impress, sipped from champagne flutes and mingled as the noise level steadily rose. But the guests were there not just to drink or dance: they were celebrating the opening of Chinese photographer Liu Gang's exhibition in the space. Organized in conjunction with Beijing's Allens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), the exhibit of absurdist photos, titled "Merlin, Champagne and Regalia," represents a new kind of extravagance not seen before by China's rapidly growing art community. "Their lavish openings are certainly something to behold," says Lee Ambrozy, a local observerwho writes the art blog Sinopop. "Black tie, bodyguards, champagne fountains and all!"

For UCCA artistic director Jerome Sans, cofounder of Paris's Palais de Tokyo, the Seine-side contemporary art museum, the link between the art world and nightlife has always existed, but collaborations between the two have started picking up momentum in today's recessionary environment. UCCA has just launched a monthly wine series, where vintage and vintner get as much attention as--if not more than--the art. The April event featured Chile's Vina Casablanca, "known for its consistently fresh, exuberant and elegant wines," as the invitation stated, without even mentioning the art. With wine and, increasingly, spirits being displayed on a par with the visual works, the relationship between art and drinking is moving from incidental to symbiotic.

It's also becoming strategic. The struggling art world, long supported by prospectors living off the financial bubble, is looking for new ways to survive. For galleries fighting to stay in the game, the mission now is to attract new audiences and expand the demographics of collectors. One way to do that is to link art more directly with a fun and fast-paced lifestyle. "This comes out of a desire to tap into similar client databases with the assumption that those who consume wine are likely to purchase art and vice versa," says Gabe Suk, senior representative in Asia for the wine auction company Hart Davis Hart.

In London, "pop up" bars in gallery spaces and late-night art openings have injected a youthful atmosphere into the sometimes staid gallery scene. GSK Contemporary at Royal Academy of the Arts in London staged a series of late-night openings earlier this year, and also employed the hip East End restaurant and cabaret club Bistrotheque to set up a pop-up eatery called Flash inside its Burlington House gallery. In addition, it installed a neon "art bar" in one of its 18th-century paneled rooms. "We're looking at someone in his late 20s or early 30s who is creative, on the scene and wants to call himself a collector," explains Tally Beck, director of Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. "The target now is the new collector."

To lure that new collector, Beck organized a catered affair with music--"basically a big party"--for a recent opening of Xie Guoping's first solo exhibition, titled "No Trace," held at Beijing's ...