The opening of 〝Surging Waves – Macau AFA 11th Anniversary Exhibition of Post-90s Generation Members〞was such a great success held in Tak Chun Macau Art Garden on Dec 21 (Friday). On that day, lots of honorable guests have come to support the exhibition, including the Deputy Director of Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR Mr. XIN Jian Bo, Head of Division of Visual Art of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government Ms. Cheong In Fong, Director of Macao Daily News Mr. LU Bo, Director of the Macau Artist Society Mr. NG WAI KIN , Senior Manager of Branding departtment of Macao Tak Chun Group Ms. Fiona Lee, Director of Creative Macau Ms. Lúcia Lemos, Macao Famous Artist Mr Ng Wei Ming, President of AFA Ms. Alice Kok etc. The exhibition hall was so crowded that it filled with lots of guests and artist, it was such a great time to have fun and enjoy the moment.

Opening ceremony

Group photo of guests and artists

The Artists (From left: Sou Chon Kit,  Leong Chon, Leong Chi Mou and Chan On Kei)

Macau Art For All Society (AFA) has celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. This year we have reached the 11th year. It is the beginning of a new decade as if in the season of spring where the nature begins to grow again. As an artists association, the AFA was established to promote artistic creation in Macau by providing artists opportunities and platform to showcase their works. In the course of the past eleven years, we have seen that local artists are becoming younger and younger. Their works excel the previous generations in many ways. In an effort to reveal the new forces in the art scene of Macau, for its 11th anniversary exhibition, AFA has invited six artists who are among the youngest in the association and they were all born during the 1990’s.

These six artists are between the ages of 24 to 27, reaching toward the milestone age of 30 that Confucius considered as the “Age of Independence”. The artistic process during this phase is crucial. Under the effort of experiment and practice, young artists are laying a far-reaching foundation for their creative direction and artistic path.

The participating artists include Lei Chek On, Chan On Kei, Leong Chon, Leong Chi Mou, Zhang Ke and Sou Chon Kit. Their backgrounds are different and were not necessarily born in Macau. But they all based their works in this city where they call home now.

Lek Chek On majored in Sculpture in his Bachelor’s study. This exhibition shows the sculptures he made when he graduated. These strange objects are the artistic expressions he extracts from the traditional symbolic forms created in historical China. Together with his two latest paintings “Shenlu” and “Sertar”, we see that after the training of abstract painting techniques, Lei Chek On begins to formally create his beloved world of myth.

Chan On Kei presents three pieces of ceramic works in the current exhibition, with the theme of high heels. The objects that are taken for granted in our popular culture are released from the pain by the withdrawal into symbols. But she captures the core of its distortion and transforms it into a commensurate piece of art.

 

Sustain, Chan On Kei, 65 x 12 x 12 cm, Porcelain, 2018

Leong Chon's artistic exploration is carried out through sculpture, painting, installation and performance art. Today, he shows his latest two portraitures in painting. The painting method uses the principle of oil painting and oil absorption. From the gap between the reflection and the oil layer, one can barely recognize the contents of the paintings. This kind of experiment on the "visibility" of images is exactly the opposite of the current “Instant-culture” of image on social media. The subversive nature of a young artist can clearly be seen.

Destined Life,Leong Chon, Size Variable, Resin, Gold, Rope, 2016

Leong Chi Mou’s vision of art is not merely on the individual level, but is a reflection of his own situation projected onto the thinking of local culture and identity. The blue melancholy and the golden luxury of the “Blue Gold series” are inspired from his reflection on Macau. The "Alchemist Project" displayed in the current exhibition points directly to the recent forecast of the International Monetary Fund Organization, referring in the year 2020, Macau's per capita GDP will be elevated to the highest position of the world. In response to this, Leong Chi Mou has produced a magnified coin and a black gold credit card with no market value. The exquisiteness of his works is so enticing, is it a deliberate act? Or is it a joke with black humor? One smiles knowingly.

ALCHEMIST PROJECT- Black Card B , Leong Chi Mou, 86  x 55 cm,  Polymer Acrylic, Lacquer, 18K Gold Leaf , Silver Leaf, PMMA Board, 2018

In Zhang Ke's new work "Eyes as Metaphor”, she changes from her lively and teasing style by using the darker classical sketch Grisaille technique to describe two novels by the Nobel Prize writer Jose Saramago. The novel "Blindness" is about the darkness of human nature. Her sensitivity to the world leads her intuitively to grasp the essence of the issue, and then she uses her favorite visual language to tell her version of the stories. Her work is the emotion she projected into, more and more exciting, delicate and far-reaching.

 Blindess as a Metaphor, Zhang Ke, 105 x 75 cm, Watercolor on Paper, 2018

Sou Chon Kit is different from the rest of the participating artists in that he has never studied in a formal art school. His life was full of twists and turns. At a certain point he has even given up on himself. Then he happened to meet local art teachers Wong Ka Long and Cai Guojie, who introduced him back to art. Soon he took up the brush and painted again, and emerged himself completely into it. His art does not suggest much symbolic meaning, nor does it require any theoretical explanation. There is only the pure union between the artist and the material. He devotes himself into dancing with the paint and the surface of the canvas; the revealing mountains or rivers in his works are the very landscape of his heart and mind.

Mountains and Seas III, Sou Chon Kit, 90 x 50 cm, Acrylic on Canvas, 2018

It is said that the post-90s generation will be a generation that vigorously promotes individuality. Through the plasticity of art, they experiment and create their own languages, and the results are rather impressive. As a curator, I feel that "plasticity" is not enough to describe their current state, but it is the manifestation of this forming energy. The magic of artistic creation is the release of ideas and emotions through the shaping of images and forms. This energy is like the wind that creates the waves. The surging waves of the Yangtze River are pushing forward, and we will wait and see in order to witness the official launch of a new generation of artistic sparks taking place in front of our eyes.

“Surging Waves – Macau AFA 11th Anniversary Exhibition of Post-90s Generation Members” is partly sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Macao SAR Government. Media partners include Hoje Macau and Ponto Final. The exhibition will be opened to public from Dec 21, 201817 to Jan 26, 2019.

Guest was watching artworks

AFA Macau is located in 1st Floor, Art Garden, Avenida Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues N. 265, Macau. The gallery is open from Monday to Saturday (11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) and closed on Sunday and public holidays. For enquiries, please call (853) 2836 6064 during office hours or email to info@afamacau.com. For more information, please visit www.afamacau.com.