Path and Adventure

Macao artist, Mio Pang Fei, will represent Macao, China, in the 5th exhibition organized by the Macao Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale. The veteran artist has been selected among nearly forty iconic artist active in local art scene and he will show his works along with outstanding international artists at the 56th Venice Biennale.

The Macao exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale, entitled Path and Adventure, will showcase two collections of paintings and installations created by Mio Pang Feifrom 1960s onwards. These include ‘Water Margin’ and ‘Post-calligraphy’ series, representing the artist’s achievement from his decades-long research and practice of ‘neo-orientalism’, an artistic approach transcending nationalisms that embraces Western art concepts to reconstruct an Eastern aesthetic.

Such orientation of creation has made Mio Pang Fei‘s work distinctive, since in terms of overall composition, it falls into a Western and contemporary category, but judging from the materials and inspiration, it reveals a native cultural identity. For this reason, the committee holds that the artist’s work represents a unique phenomenon in the course of Macao’s art development, hoping that his art can offer the 56th Venice Art Biennale viewers a charming artistic landscape of Macao cultural identity.

Born in Shanghai, China in 1936, Mio Pang Fei graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Fujian Provincial Institute. In 1982, he moved to Macao, pursuing a professional career as a painter. He also taught at the Visual Arts Academy of Macao, Nanjing Arts University, College of Fine Arts Shanghai University and University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom. Mio has won numerous awards and recognitions during his artistic career, including a Medal of Cultural Merit conferred by the Macao SAR government in 1999. He has hosted over 60 exhibitions in Macao, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Portugal and Belgium, amongst others, with his works collected by various art institutions worldwide.