SHANGHAI—Even ShContemporary's new director, Colin Chinnery, says he was surprised at how well this year’s fair went off. After all, there were plenty of factors working against the Sept. 10–13 show,  such as the economy, the recent departure of founding director Lorenzo Rudolf, competition from the sprightly and young Hong Kong fair Art HK, and the specter of last year’s rather moribund edition still giving dealers and buyers pause.

One of the major objectives for this year’s edition, Chinnery says, was simply adjusting people’s expectations, which were overblown by the exploding Chinese art market before being squashed by the recession. “The expectations are different now than before,” he said, “but they are based on solid reality. The hyper-commercial or expensive work is nowhere to be seen. There are a lot more experimental works, lots of younger work. People are going to realize that art doesn’t appreciate 100 times in five years.”

To give ShContemporary new energy, Chinnery, formerly of Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, reorganized the show with a revamped collector’s program, along with a curated portion put together by Anton Vidokle, Mami Kotaoka, and Wang Jianwei. While last year’s curated section focused on undiscovered artists from Asia, this year’s, titled “Discoveries,” had no regional boundaries and pulled in works from Anri Sala, Martha Rosler, and Marina Abramovic from such high-profile international galleries as Marian Goodman (New York and Paris), Christian Nagel (Cologne and Berlin), Sean Kelly (New York), and PMK (Seoul and Beijing). For the conference program, the curators were able to draw such speakers as critic Hal Foster, artist Martha Rosler, and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, who all lent the fair some much-needed critical heft.

One notable absence was that of Shanghai gallerist and social doyenne Pearl Lam, who in past years has almost single-handedly shepherded the fair’s collectors program. Her nightly dinners during the event — including one extravagant, 250-person affair each year — were always the most coveted invitations. This year, her absence — and the lack of openings at any of her four Contrasts galleries in the city — was strongly felt.

To make up for that loss, the fair mounted an ambitious Collectors Development Program, which hosted a major dinner at the Swissôtel in addition to organizing talks and programs that were geared toward attracting visitors. Some notable events outside of the fair included a show of Chinese and Belgian art, “Fantastic Illusions,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art and another show, “Stolen Treasures From Modern China,” which featured work by Zhou Tiehai, at ShangART’s new space in the Dunhill Villas, a pair of gorgeous 1930s mansions that the Richemont Group renovated as homes for two its brands, Dunhill and Constantin Vacheron. Still, there was a slight reduction in the number of events overall, although some people enjoyed the more relaxed tone.

In terms of the sales, ShContemporary seemed to have found a healthy lifeline this year, with firm if not spectacular activity reported, thanks to a strong showing of collectors from such countries as the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea. (The U.S. and Europe, meanwhile, had fewer to show for themselves.)

On fair floor, artworks and prices seemed to be more on the moderate side, with few galleries trotting out really expensive work. A few notable exceptions included Ota Fine Arts of Tokyo, which presented a solo offering of Yayoi Kusama, with works in the $200,000–$320,000 range, and sold on the third day one of her pumpkin sculptures. “We took the opportunity to understand the market for Kusama,” said Yoshiko Kogi, assistant curator at Ota. “We see potential in China.” Curiously, the gallery had sold mostly to female collectors from the Philippines and Taiwan.