Ung Vai Meng
Ung Vai Meng was born in Macao. In his early years, he received formal artistic training from Master Kam Cheong Ling. In 1986, he studied in Porto, Portugal on scholarship awarded by the Cultural Institute of Macao. In 1991, he studied at AR.CO in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2002, Ung Vai Meng completed his master’s degree at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and he obtained his PhD in Fine Arts from the China Academy of Art in 2010.
In 1999, Ung Vai Meng was designated as the first Director of the Macao Museum of Art and later was promoted to the Head of Cultural Activities and Recreation Department of Civic Municipal Affairs Bureau in 2008. He was appointed as the President of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao from 2010 to 2017. And now, Ung is the Distinguished Guest Professor and Doctoral Mentor of Macau University of Science and Technology, teaching contemporary art theory.
Ung Vai Meng has been dedicated to contemporary art and has participated in large scale projects in Macao, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Lisbon. He has won many prizes in local and international artistic contests since 1989.
Ung Vai Meng is a member of the Macao Fine Arts Association and the co-founder of the Círculo dos Amigos da Cultura de Macau. He has held a wide range of solo exhibitions in Macao, Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and Europe.
Ung Vai Meng and the Macao artist Chan Hin Io formed the ‘YiiMa’ art group in 2019, and in the same year they hosted their first largescale exhibition at the Museu Colecção Berardo in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2022, the art group represented the Macao SAR to participate in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Publications
1989 Drawings of Ung Vai Meng, Instituto Cultural de Macau
1993 Works of Ung Vai Meng, Fundação Oriente
1995 Sensibility, Instituto Cultural de Macau / Macao Foundation
1998 Péloras da Memoria, DECM, Lisbon
1999 Pearls of Memory, Macao
2018 Vestiges of Lines, Albergue SCM / ALB creative LAB
2020 Ancestor Portraits in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Social Sciences Academic Press, China
Merits
1999 ‘Order of the Cultural Merit’, Macao Government
2001 ‘Honourable Achievement Award’, Macao SAR Government
2014 ‘Order of Merit’, Portuguese Republic Government
2015 ‘Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters’, French Government