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)! was such a great success held in Tak Chun Macau Art Garden on Feb 26 (Tuesday). On that day, lots of honorable guests have come to support the exhibition, including Vice-President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government Mr. Chan Kai Chon, President of the Macau Artist Society Mr. Lok Hei , President of Fundação Rui Cunha Doctor Cunha, Director of Macao Delegation of Orient Foundation Ms. Ana Paula CLETO, Director of Creative Macau Ms. Lúcia Lemos, Publisher of Macau Closer Mr. Ricardo Pinto, Asistant Professor of Department of Communication in University of Macau Doctor Benjamin HODGES, Vice-Chairman of CBF Culture Foundation Mrs. Livia Chow Lee, 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

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

Qi Baishi said once, “Painting is a lonesome path. If one can endure the loneliness, then there are a hundred things to be achieved.” What Qi Baishi pointed out here between the painter and his/her work is something that Crystal has certainly known. She titled the current exhibition with the idiom “idle hands are the devil's playthings” which suggests that when someone has nothing to do, one is more likely to get into trouble. Crystal left her hometown to New York, facing the path that she has chosen for herself. the countless moments of loneliness that she has experienced, trying to find a way out in the sea of her own memories. Crystal has a sensitive nature and feelings seem to be everything to her. But who can really understand the depth of one’s own feeling? She endures the lonesomeness and started painting with her idle hands. Her paintings come from her dreams and her brushes free her subconsciousness out into the open wilderness where the faceless protagonists dwell. The devil’s playthings? Maybe. But what she really cares is the blurry boundaries between existence. The space between the past and the dream is her canvas. Her heart and her mind interwoven, at the end, she is not only her own landscape, but the silent scenery of a spiritual journey in front of our eyes.

 
Guest was watching artworks

The exhibition hall was filled with people

“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, 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.