Macao: Through the eyes of artists

Image credit: Artwork titled 'Abnormal Structure', courtesy of artist Chan Hin Io

Fresh work from Macao’s finest home-grown artists, alongside world-class global artists, will take centre stage at the city’s acclaimed International Art Biennale 2023.

Like many teenagers growing up, Eric Fok wasn’t terribly curious about his home city of Macao. It was just his home.

But after studying around the world, including in Florence, which is often known as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and earning a Masters in Fine Art in Taiwan, he began to see it with fresh eyes.

“Even in a short space of time, while I was away studying, it had changed so quickly,” Eric says. “When you feel like you don’t know a place you realise you want to discover its history. As I researched, suddenly there was a complex old world, still living and breathing in this new world.”

As he delved further into the colourful history of Macao SAR, with all its Portuguese influences from over three centuries as a trading colony, Eric had a desire to understand the old town as it was back then. He began drawing intricate and detailed maps of ancient Macao with novel constructions, created on paper aged with tea and using a technical pen.

“Drawing a map feels like you are having a dialogue with the old city,” he continues. “Back then, maps were a symbol of power as related to the period of empires and great explorations, and Macao, in particular, looked so different.”

Today, a multi-award winning artist at the age of 33, Eric is represented by Karen Weber Contemporary Art Gallery in Hong Kong. He makes a full-time living from his art. “I am very lucky to be able to do so,” he says.

Eric is one of six renowned local artists whose work is being showcased at the Invitational Exhibition of the Macao International Art Biennale 2023, ‘Art Macao’, an international art event organised by the Macao Special Administrative Region Government. From July 28 until October 29, Art Macao will hold nearly 30 art exhibitions across the city, in a showcase of modern and contemporary masterpieces from more than 20 countries and regions. Visit Macao during this period, and truly everywhere you turn will be an opportunity to engage with world-class art.

These include six of Macao's integrated resorts, each bringing together exceptional artists from around the world in dedicated exhibits. Visitors of Art Macao can expect globally renowned artists such as Mr Doodle, who will showcase a series of installations with his lively signature interlocking designs, which he calls ‘graffiti spaghetti.’

His very first exhibition in Macao will be hosted at City of Dreams. Other notable highlights include The Venetian Macao’s ‘Meet The Magic’ celebrating the legacy of Disney with artists Philip Colbert and Jason Naylor.

Bringing together creative forces to produce a city-wide signature event, distinguished curator Qiu Zhijie is the chief curator of the 2023 show. He believes the community of Macao artists are particularly brilliant.

“Macao's local artists have formed a very harmonious and active art circle in Macao, which is very rare in other international art cities,” he says. “These local artists have a broad vision, are familiar with global contemporary art movements and working styles, and at the same time are able to dig deeper into their local cultural roots, presenting an active and open creative energy.”

The main exhibition will be held on the first, second and third floors of the five-storey Macao Museum of Art, located on Avenue Xian Xing Hai. There are 42 artists participating in this exhibition, hailing from Japan, Indonesia, India, Canada, France, Cambodia, the United States, Thailand, Philippines, Italy, Singapore, Portugal, Mexico, South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The main exhibition will display contemporary artworks, including painting, engraving, photography, mixed media, sculpture, installation, video and artificial intelligence art.

As well as Eric, the artists Qiu Zhijie has chosen to highlight include Konstantin Bessmertny, Ung Vai Meng, Lampo Leong, Chan Hin Io and Bunny Lai Sut Weng. They have all been invited to produce new creations on this year’s theme of ‘The Statistics of Fortune’, to explore the development of science and technology and look at the clashes and interactions between science and religion. The work of these six local artists will be shown at Macao Cultural Centre.

Macao-made art is having a moment, believes Ung Vai Meng, who grew up in Macao drawing and sketching on the streets as a small child with art master Kam Cheong Ling. A celebrated lifelong painter as well as a researcher, guest professor and doctoral mentor at Macao University of Science and Technology, Ung set up the ‘YiiMa’ art group with photographer Chan Hin Io (YiiMa means ‘the twins’ in Cantonese) in 2019.

Yiima was honoured to be chosen to represent Macao last year at the 59th Venice Biennale, as part of the SAR’s 15th year at the prestigious art event.

“We received around 50,000 visitors to our stand at the Venice Biennale,” he recalls. “People were asking lots of questions, they were excited to know more about our history and customs, not just our art but the whole cultural diversity of Macao. I really felt like a citizen of the world, not just of China. Macao has really gained a global status.”

For the Venice Biennale YiiMa created 11 artworks entitled ‘Allegory of Dreams’, including photographs of their on-site performances in the city’s historical spots, in addition to sculpture and video documentation. “Macao has an amazing artistic spirit derived from being a city so full of history and cultural diversity,” he says. “As an artist it is important, it’s inspirational.” What’s more, he adds, is the level of art education now available to budding young creatives in the city, such as his son, who creates digital artworks in his spare time.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old award-winning Macao-born artist Bunny Lai Sut Weng, agrees that the city provides fertile ground for artistic inspiration. “It’s the fusion of East and West that makes it so special,” she says.

After graduating from University of Fine Arts in Guangzhou 11 years ago, she started her career as an artist, greatly influenced by the conviviality of her home city. “I found plenty of institutions and organisations supporting shows and spaces for us to gain exposure,” she says. “Macao was a great incubator. There are lots of opportunities, and many more new distinctive young artists coming up.”

Influenced by the painting style of French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne, Bunny’s colourful oils-on-canvas often feature animals in human situations, such as bears, birds, giraffes, elephants and rabbits, sometimes front and centre, or sometimes hidden in the art. With shapes and forms overlapping, she represents daily Macao scenes and familiar buildings with a different perspective. As well as her work as an artist, Bunny is a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Design of the Macao Polytechnic University, director of Macao Artist Society, member of the Council under Macao Youth Art Association and Vice-Director of Art for All Society. She admits the lines are blurred between her work and her personal life; she really eats, breathes and sleeps art.

“I like to think about the responsibility of our society and how to co-exist with nature, using art,” she says. “For me, art is a mirror reflecting our social outlook.”

This year’s diversity and breadth of talent at Art Macao, as well as the strong cultural support, is representative of a city intent on celebrating artistic talent and further evolving its role as a creative hub of Asia.

Discover the work of Eric Fok, Ung Vai Meng and Bunny Lai as well as other local Macao artists at the ART SPACE, Macao Cultural Centre.