“Painting
Nostalgia – Ink Works by Lai Ming”, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of
the Macao S.A.R. Government, will host its opening ceremony this Wednesday
(November 15) at 6pm in Tap Seac Gallery, displaying sixty-five works of the
contemporary Lingnan painter Lai Ming.
Born Lai Kwok On in Macao in 1929, Lai Ming is
one of the few Lingnan painters who are still active in the art circle. Lai
studied portraiture with Law Po Shan in 1940. Since his father was a good friend
of Lingnan master Gao Jianfu, he started studying Lingnan painting with the
master since the age of eleven. Four years later, Lai entered Chun Shui Art
Academy and started living with Gao from the following year.
Lai Ming has long been devoted to painting for
several dozens of years. He is skilled in both drawings and abstract paintings
of different themes and is always producing high-quality works. Other than
teaching students, he also has great influence on his family and members of the
Hong Kong Springtide Art Society. During his stay in Macao in 1940s and 50s, Lai
often wandered around Macao’s streets and suburbs seeking out beautiful scenes
for inspiration. He produced many landscape paintings featuring old Macao
particularly a painting of St. Paul’s Ruins concerning which Gao Jianfu wrote an
inscription “Sacred Relic of Macao”.
Even Lai Ming migrated to Hong Kong over fifty
years ago, he still missed his old friends and would often return to Macao to
attend different types of art activities. Now he returns to his birthplace where
he started his journey of art, to hold his first solo exhibition, which is a
contribution to the cultural development of his hometown and marks another
chapter in the history of the Lingnan School of Painting which had a major
influence on Chinese painting half a century ago.
“Painting Nostalgia – Ink Works by Lai Ming” will
be held from November 16 to January 28, 2007. The opening hours for Tap Seac
Gallery are everyday from 10am to 7pm. Entrance is free.