*** The city continued its quest for China art world dominance this year, with a slew of big-name exhibitions, a triptych of fairs, and a triumphant 11th edition of the Shanghai Biennale. Herewith, the winners and the losers, the dodgy and the dynamic: the year in art.

The Galleries

2016 was a great year for West Bund...

A little more than two years after splashing onto the scene, West Bund finally found its feet in 2016. Yes, it still feels far - and no, there’s still nowhere to grab coffee. But what it does now have is galleries: three of the city’s finest relocated from M50 this year, bringing with them pleasingly more dynamic programs than the area’s lumbering museums can muster. ShanghART unveiled their new digs with group show Holzwege Cream of the crop is ShanghART, whose November move coincided with the mega-gallery’s 20th anniversary. That’s eons by Shanghai standards - congrats to them! They joined Hong Kong newbie Edouard Malingue Gallery, erstwhile M50-er Aike Dellarco, and just a little farther along Longteng Dadao, MadeIn Gallery where November saw Xu Zhen’s concept store lure art lovers with expensive golden pajamas and Rainbow Buddhas. Fabulous! All I want for Christmas is one of Xu Zhen's Rainbow Buddhas

...And M50 soldiered on

Those three M50 émigrés mean three fewer reasons to go to the city’s former art district (four, if you count photography mainstay M97 who also upped sticks and moved this year). Still flying the flag for the flagging art hub is Chronus Art Center, which was transformed by Austrian artist Thomas Feuerstein into an alchemist's laboratory in March for Psychoprosa. There’s more weird science at Antenna Space right now, thanks to Nadim Abbas' ongoing solo, Chimera. Mixing art and science at CAC Elsewhere in the city, BANK bounced back from being abruptly booted out of their original digs in June with a cool new basement space on Anfu Lu. That’s currently hosting a solo by digital darling, Lin Ke. Lin Ke @ BANK's lovely new space It was a good year for nearby Leo Xu Projects, with lots to love about Pixy Liao’s September solo in particular including man bags, gender subversion, and a secret display of plush penises. An embarrassment of penises at Leo Xu Projects, courtesy of Pixy Liao Several smaller spaces did a grand job of bringing lots of lovely art to all corners of the city - I'm looking at you MoCA Pavilion and REFORMERart, as well as the ongoing Foreign Bodies: Human Identity in a Posthuman World series of shows at Goethe Institute. Wu Tzu-Ning @ Goethe Institute now - here's what we made of the series' debut Tian Xiaolei

The Museums

There was exceptional art in expected places...

A big tip of the hat to Rockbund Art Museum for what was a stellar 2016. All immersive shows and sensory overload, highlights were Heman Chong's booming Road Runner Vs Mr. Bean mash-up in the Singaporean's springtime solo Ifs, Ands or Buts; eating prison food inside Zhang Ding's golden cage; and fall's sublime (and ongoing!) Felix Gonzales-Torres solo. Heman Chong, making some noise at RAM After moving at what felt like a snail's pace for its first 18 months, YUZ Museum has found its groove. March's Giacometti retrospective was, inevitably, beautiful... Really, you can't go wrong with the late, great Modernist's spindly, solitary sculptures ...But we were more excited by the new names and curatorial approach of September's contemporary group exhibition OVERPOP. That and current artworld crush, Camille Henrot - her Grosse Fatique film stole the show. Watch a snippet of Camille Henrot's Grosse Fatigue here. I promise it will make your day The beginning of the year saw Power Station of Art overrun with decapitated animals and menacing oversized prayer wheels at Huang Yongping's Bâton Serpent III... Headless creatures at Huang Yongping @ PSA ... before once again hosting Shanghai Biennale in November, this year titled Why Not Ask Again? Kudos to this year’s curators, Raqs Media Collective and a particular shout out to theater director Mou Sen for that enormous moonscape at the heart of the show. MouSen+MSG, The Great Chain of Being — Planet Trilogy at PSA. If you think this looks cool, wait til you see what's inside...

...Plus shockers and surprises elsewhere

Outside of traditional museum and gallery spaces, K11 turned heads when it hosted Chinese contemporary art enfant terrible Chen Tianzhuo’s pseudo-sexual, quasi-religious psychedelic operatic work, Trayastrimsa. While naysayers called it all shock and no substance, there’s no denying the talent of Parisian dance troupe House of Drama who performed the work alongside Asian Dope Boys' Beio and Yu Han. Beio performed in Chen Tianzhuo's deliciously weird Trayastrimsa April saw Earlier Mona Lisa descend on Xintiandi's The House, stacking up evidence for the show's centerpiece in fact being the previously unknown handiwork of one Leonardo da Vinci. Cynics might call it a swindle designed to onboard audiences to validate researchers' claims. We said: Exit through the gift shop. Mona Lisa or Faux-na Lisa? For this particular art fan, 2016’s best exhibition wasn’t technically in Shanghai at all, but a short train ride away in nearby Wuzhen for Utopias/Heterotopias. Oh China, why can’t all water towns be like this?! With beautifully curated shows, world-class artists and an enormous pink fish, à la Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman?! Wuzhen's resident fish

The Fairs

Art collectors were thoroughly spoiled...

A triptych of art fairs enjoyed strong sales in 2016: freshly rebranded from Photo Shanghai, the arguably clunkier-titled PHOTOFAIRS|Shanghai hit up the Exhibition Center in September. A highlight was a special showcase by legendary China photographer Marc Riboud, who died this year aged 93. All the fun of the (photo) fair November saw boutique fair West Bund Art and Design go head to head with its ART021 counterpart having switched from its summertime slot to coincide with Shanghai Biennale. High rates of air kissing, a deluge of champagne, and no small amount of ostentation all helped create the perfect artworld storm. West Bund Art + Design Fair

...And they're doing a lot more than just buying

Everyone knows about the collector owners behind museums Long and YUZ - Wang Wei and Liu Yiqian, and Budi Tek respectively - but this year and next, a new crop of monied art patrons are stepping up and giving back. First is the private exhibition space of collector and nightclub mogul, Qiao Zhibing. What with shows like behind-the-scenes Studio and the altogether more playful Martin Creed solo, his rather excellent Qiao Space did a grand job of building momentum along West Bund in 2016. Studio @ Qiao Space shared a sneak peek into artists' workspaces Here’s hoping Qiao will bring more of the same to his landmark TANK Museum, set to open in the district somewhen next year. Fellow collector and former director of Minsheng Art Museum He Juxing is also opening a space at West Bund. Called Star Museum, this one's been on the cards for a while, so we'll watch and wait. *** 2016 was a whirlwind and a watershed for art in Shanghai. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who made this year so edifying, enlightening, and entertaining - and here's to more of the same next year!