Organised by the Macao Museum of Art (MAM), under the auspices of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the exhibition “Scenes of Life: Modern Paintings from the MAM Collection” is currently held on the second floor of MAM, featuring 60 works by 47 local and foreign artists, including 39 landscape and 21 figure paintings. The exhibits created in multiple techniques, including oil, acrylic, mixed media, sculptures, folding screens, and diverse styles, showcase the open-mindedness and artistry of Macao's creative production resulting from the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures.
Modern paintings feature a range of new artistic forms, breaking away from traditional limitations, particularly reality representation. From the 1980s to the present day, modern painting has developed increasingly and has been exerting a continuous influence on the development of the city's painting circle. Through presenting MAM’s significant collections, the exhibition “Scenes of Life: Modern Paintings from the MAM Collection” highlights some of the traits of modern works, such as using artistic approaches of refining, simplifying, or exaggerating real objects; streamlining or re-organising structures most graphically; exploring light and colour to reach their intrinsic beauty and using abstract settings to express spiritual moods and temperaments. The theme of the exhibition tries to present the collision of Chinese and Western aesthetics and philosophy, as well as the artistic spirit of sensitivity, imagery, mentality, style and emotion, showing the artists’ expression of the rich emotions and complex living conditions of life through artworks