Director General of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province
In Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, people share a similar culture, hence the close and colourful artistic exchanges. Since the reform and opening up, through exchanges and mutual learning, the ink art of the three regions has long influenced and integrated with one another for mutual promotion and development. In innovative exploration, ink works from the whole Greater Bay Area display a unique regional charm and great aesthetic beauty.
In order to implement the requirements pertaining to ‘jointly developing a cultured bay area’ in the ‘Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay’ and its ‘Culture and Tourism Development Plan’, and to deepen cooperation in cultural field in the Greater Bay Area, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government and the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province jointly organised Wild Imagination: Contemporary Ink Art in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao from 2000 to 2022 in coordination with the Macao Museum of Art and the Guangdong Museum of Art. The exhibition will last from 15th April to 19th June, 2022 at the Macao Museum of Art.
Following its successful presentation at the Guangdong Museum of Art in December 2020, this exhibition is now toured in Macao, showcasing works ranging from ink on paper, video to installation by over 50 artists from the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.
Guangdong has always been an experimental ground for vanguard ink creations. From the Lingnan School of blending Chinese and western techniques, to the continuous expansion and evolution of new and experimental ink art, a diversity of contemporary expressional languages of ink absorbing the strength of other art forms and showing eclecticism has been shaped through East-West cultural exchanges and cross references in the new century. As a distinctively Chinese aesthetic form, ink art has a unique artistic spirit, expressing to the world with individualist and innovative imageries, the Oriental cultural character that manifests a combination of delicacy and force embracing heaven and earth.
The exhibition features ink art from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, highlighting its forms and ecology while exploring in depth the flourishing development of traditional ink painting in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao after China’s reform and opening up and its brand-new outlook in the new era, with the aim to further promote cooperation and exchange in the fields of culture and art in the Greater Bay Area and effectively advance the cultural construction of an international top-tier Bay Area.
We thank the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government and all other concerned parties for their support for this exhibition and look forward to its wonderful presentation.
I wish the exhibition a complete success!
Li Bin
Director General of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province