CENTRAL PARK: An exhibition from artist Gu Wenda blends traditional ink and paper with contemporary design (ERIC WONG)

Chambers Fine Art is an unassuming gallery front tucked under New York's most popular elevated public park – the High Line – and between shiny new buildings designed by the likes of Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel. It's a neighborhood known for world-class fashion and design, but the Chambers gallery offers art lovers a unique chance to view works from China's most exciting contemporary artists. Since its opening in 2000, Chambers has premiered solo exhibitions from artists including Lu Shengzhong, Hong Hao, Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen as well as works from Qiu Zhijie, Tan Dun and Feng Mengbo.

NEW WAVE: Chambers Fine Art founder Christophe Mao showcases contemporary Chinese artists for New Yorkers (ERIC WONG)

Gallery founder Christophe Mao opened Chambers to follow a personal passion, but has caught a wave of worldwide interest in Chinese contemporary art. The Guggenheim Museum this year announced an initiative with Hong Kong's Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation to commission works from up-and-coming artists for its permanent collection (LINK) and auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's have both staged their first sales on the Chinese mainland this year, targeting nouveau riche art collectors in Beijing.

"Classical art deals with the past, with something already recognized. It's more like research," Mao said, "but contemporary art deals with this moment. You are involved with today, living things, and artists who are still working. So, in a way, you are also dealing with the future. That excites me. I'm a people-oriented person."

Mao had built a career in finance before taking the leap into contemporary Chinese art. Inspired by a 1990s show in Hong Kong, he decided to follow his passion and open a gallery of his own, named after Sir William Chambers, the celebrated British architect who used Chinese principles in garden design in the 18th century.

When Mao first opened Chambers Fine Art, he shared space with a collector of classical Chinese furniture, staging shows that juxtaposed the clean lines of pieces from Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) with the bold strokes of modern artists.

"My first show was Lu Shengzhong, a Chinese paper cut artist. He changed the whole gallery into a temple. It was so successful," Mao said. "That put me on the map."

As the popularity of Chinese contemporary art increased, he opened an upstate annex in 2006 and a sister gallery in Beijing's Chaoyang District the following year.

Leaving behind an established career as a white-collar finance executive for the art world involved "serious risk," Mao said, but he has never regretted his decision.

"I don't' know what else I could do," he said. "I'm so proud I made that step."

Not long after he expanded his operations, the collapse of the American economy in late 2007 sparked a worldwide depression in the art market. Without warning, buyers disappeared and gallery owners frantically took steps to survive the downturn.

"Everyone closed or scaled down, but I took the opportunity to move to the ground floor of a bigger space," he said. "I got a good deal."

Then, in late 2012, Superstorm Sandy barreled into New York, flooding the streets with seawater and swamping the west side neighborhood where Chambers is located.

"I think I am more sturdy now, more immune after going through these things," Mao said.

After surviving the challenges of the past, Chambers Fine Art is now positioned to take advantage of a surge of interest in Chinese contemporary art. Young Chinese professionals are buying up works from emerging artists, creating a "positive circle" of funding to fuel new and exciting works.

"The art is directly associated with the nation's rise, you can compare it to America in the 1950s. There has been great change socially and economically. Exciting things are happening and artists are capturing the moment. Art reflects that change psychologically," Mao said.

Currently on show at the gallery is Gu Wenda's Central Park, a multimedia exhibition that blends Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang with the five elements of Chinese philosophy (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) for a grand vision of a "modern eastern garden." It is a concept rooted in the past for contemporary China, blending old and new in a way that only contemporary art can capture. He is the first Chinese contemporary artist blending the traditional form of ink and paper into modern work, Mao said.

"Contemporary art in China has a very short history, given it just opened its doors in 1979," Mao said. "So, China went through stages: opening eyes, absorbing, imitate and then create."

For years, all China knew was traditional and realistic oil painting. They didn't think about installations, or minimalism or any of the '-isms' of the art world," Mao said.

Now, artists like Gu Wenda are leading the art world, bringing their unique perspectives and sensibilities to the world stage. It's an exciting time for fans of Chinese contemporary art, and Chambers Fine Art is bringing the best of this new wave to New York.

The author is a contributing writer to Beijing Review, living in New York City