Dafen Oil Painting Village

Dafen began in 1989 when a Hong Kong dealer brought a handful of painters to this village to produce replica oil paintings for export, and it grew into an industry: at its height thousands of painters worked here, many trained in a single artist or a single part of a canvas, turning out copies of Van Gogh, Monet and Da Vinci for hotels and furniture chains worldwide in numbers that were said to account for a large share of global replica production. Export demand fell after 2008 and again with online competition, and the village has shifted toward original work, custom portraits and galleries, though the copying workshops remain and painters can be watched at work in the lanes.

History

In 1989 the painter Huang Jiang began copying paintings here and is regarded as the founder of Dafen's replica trade; in the early 1990s about twenty academy-trained artists settled with him, producing dozens of copies a day after Van Gogh, Dalí, Leonardo, Rembrandt and Warhol, and one order from Walmart for 50,000 paintings had to be filled in fourteen days. After the 2008 financial crisis Western demand fell and domestic buyers pushed a change of style; in 2014 some 7,000 artists worked here, exporting five million paintings a year to the United States and Europe, and in 2018, with 8,000 residents, the local government promised to develop the village as a tourist destination (Wikipedia, Dafen Village).

What's there

• The painting workshops - artists at work in open studios along the lanes.
• The replica trade - copies of famous paintings stacked and drying.
• The galleries - original work by resident artists.
• The custom portrait shops - commissions painted from photographs.

When to go

October to April for comfortable weather; the village works year-round on weekdays, when the studios are busiest. Weekends bring more visitors and fewer painters at work.

Practical notes

The village is smaller and quieter than at its peak, and some visitors expect a more dramatic scene. Painters are working and being watched constantly, which is intrusive. Quality ranges from skilled to crude.

Nearby

Shenzhen's centre lies west; Dapeng Fortress is far east on the peninsula.