The Macao Annual Art Exhibition is an important component of the Macao Arts Festival held every year by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government. The exhibition is now in its eighth year. Since this is the tenth anniversary of the Macao handover and the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the organizer chose the exhibition theme “Yesterday.Today.Tomorrow” for Macao artists to represent with different art forms and techniques the past and present of Macao’s economic development, its people’s livelihood and the historical culture developed during the past decade and, furthermore, to anticipate the city’s glorious future.

This year’s exhibition has attracted greater attention and participation from the local community. The number of participants has doubled compared to previous exhibitions. Through rich and colourful artworks, Macao artists present their love for the motherland and the city of Macao and their feelings about the tenth anniversary of the handover. Their enthusiasm will surely inspire every spectator.

The Macao Annual Art Exhibition was formerly an exhibition of paintings and calligraphy held during the Macao Arts Festival. At that time, there were few painting and calligraphy associations to present works for exhibition, and the exhibits were merely limited to Chinese paintings, calligraphy, and western paintings. Nevertheless, with the continual diversification of Macao art, many new art associations have been established, unearthing numerous new talents. Art exhibitions and events are held almost every week by different communities, but the quality of work is inevitably erratic.

In order to move forward by encouraging diity and enhancing the ll of local art, the Cultural Affairs Bureau launched the Macao Annual Art Exhibitionvers , inviting local artists to subevemit works in different art mediincluding Chinese painting, calligraphy, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, posters, video and otha er media. In order to ensure the level of quality of the exhibition, the Bureau has invited experts from the mainland and abroad to form the judging panel, hoping local artists will learn through practice and thus advance theill of creatiity. The exhibition has received great support from local art associations and people from all r walkeve s of life, anvd is regarded as a platform for Macao artists to communicate, to emulate each other and to develop their talents. The Bureau has also sent the exhibits to China for exchange exhibitions so that mainland audiences can have a better understanding of the Chinese and western blend of Macao art.

In order to improve the guidelines, the Cultural Affairs Bureau holds a meeting every year after the opening ceremony and iites chairmen of ll art associations to present their ideas. A “Top Ten Entries” award was founded to provnv ide a clear goal to paocarticipants and to foster diversified development in the Macao art circle.

The successful organization of this exhibition was made possible in large part by the participation of indiiduals from the ll art community, as well as the support of several exceptilindiidualiious differv ent countries. We woca ish to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude tona o this v year’s s judgen vars – Jia Fangzhou, Chiao Shih-tai, Li Shenghong, Ma Juncheng and Sun-Gu Kim, as well as to all the participants and coordinators.

Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao S.A.R. Government