Pi Li In a city with hundreds of galleries but no real gallerists, the curator Pi Li (photographed with the work of the artist Liu Wei, whose solo show he is mounting this spring) is best positioned to build the artistic careers that will keep Chinese contemporary art aloft after the first bubble bursts. Pi, 32, presides over UniversalStudios-Beijing (don’t tell Hollywood), a 13,000-square-foot hangarlike space with a commercial program representing China’s hippest artists, a production arm responsible for things like the Chinese pavilion at the Venice Biennale this summer and even a noodle bar cum summer hangout. Born into the official Chinese art world — his father is the influential critic Pi Daojian — he made a name for himself in the ’90s writing about the painters who are now commanding big dollars at international auctions. And his influence as the curatorial don of the Deng Xiaoping generation only continues to expand — from the karaoke nightclubs, where he regularly convenes gatherings of artists, actors and media folk, to the offices of UBS, which recently named him one of two advisers worldwide to its corporate collection. (photo Song Chao) (courtesy www.nytimes.com)