The first exhibition of AFA for 2019 “idle hands are the devil’s playthings - works by Crystal W. M. Chan” will be held on 26 February (Tuesday)!

 
idle hands are the devil’s playthings - works by Crystal W. M. Chan

Crystal Chan Wai Man is an artist born and raised in Macau. She has lived in Taiwan, Greece and graduated from the fine arts program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Her gestural paintings involve figures and bleak landscapes that are drawn with an expressive line and brushstrokes. Her work evokes emotions that resonate with haunting memories and nostalgia. Her artworks have shown in Macau and internationally, including Women Artists International Biennial of Macau, Macau Literary Festival Exhibition, and shown at renowned photographer Nick Knight’s SHOW studio in London. Solo exhibitions were held in Macau and in New York. As an Asian female artist, she has drawn attention with her work when she was studying in the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2017 she won the Will Barnet Award issue by the National Arts Club and has held two solo exhibitions in New York in 2018.

The exhibition “Idle hands are the devil's playthings” features a series of paintings created by Crystal during the years from 2016 to 2018 when she was in New York. Leaving Macau to New York, after the four years of experience, Crystal has blurred the boundaries of the shapes she is creating. It is her way to break through the limitations. The once strongly distortion of line is now softened into strokes of brushes. The melancholic colour tones are coercing and overlaying one another, creating a series of emotional scenes. The maturity of her work is anchored in her mastering of the painting method which is based on her understanding of the self. That is why even though the appearance of her paintings is somehow ambiguous but the emotional power of her work has revealed itself in clarity during this process of artistic pursuit. She comes out with these paintings which permeate a more mature yet intimate feeling. The colours and strokes undulate on the surface of these paintings, transforming what once were distinct edges and corners of a line into a field of expressions.

 Forest, 72 x 60 inches, Oil on Canvas, 2017

A Hand and the Light, 72 x 60 inches, Oil on Canvas, 2017

A Walking Shadow Under the Red Sky, 31 x 24 inches, Oil on Canvas, 2018

“idle hands are the devil’s playthings - works by Crystal W. M. Chan” 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 27 February 27 to 2 April.

 
AFA Macau is located in 1st Floor, Tak Chun Macau Art Garden, Avenida Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues N. 265, Macau. The gallery is on the First Floor, open from Monday to Saturday (11:00 p.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.