The streets leading to the Ruins of St Paul are crowded with tourists and souvenir shops all year round, but amongst the myriad of stores selling almond cookies and jerkey, is Flugent Art Gallery, which is opened a little more than a year ago.
Manager Hiskey Mok explains that the gallery was established by a Taiwanese company. With a strong interest in art, the owner of the company hopes to build the largest private art gallery in Macau, and is also planning to open another gallery this year in the Neihu district of Taipei.
The gallery has two levels. The ground level is the shopfront that mainly sells creative products, while the underground level is a spacious exhibition area.
Regarding the art market in Macau, Mok says it has yet to reach a mature stage. Nevertheless, her gallery is working on developing it.
“Not many people are willing to spend time visiting galleries or getting in touch with art, but we see more people coming back to us for new exhibitions after we explain to them the stories and meaning behind the pieces and the artists,” she says.
The manager also believes that there are many people in town who actually enjoy art, but are not always able to experience it due to their work schedules.
“When people find that our gallery is a place for them to relax, they like to come after work or during the weekend and take a look.”
Apart from attracting more residents to visit the gallery, Flugent hopes encourage artistic interaction between Macau and the world.
“We try to invite local interests to participate in our exhibitions, as well as inviting artists from overseas to join. We want to bring art from all over the world to Macau and show local art to the international artistic community through our networks and our efforts to introduce them at art fairs.”
Mok notes that Macau has its own private collectors, but only a few.
“The buyers in Macau are more likely to make decisions based on their being fond of the pieces, instead of considering the value of a work or collection. Macau people are also more interested in paintings and photographs rather than sculptures or installations because it is easier to store them.”
From her observations, Macau buyers favor works that are realistic or “understandable”. But she does see clients who buy art pieces based on the technique of the artist or the fact that the piece can bring them room for imagination.
“Clients like to see art pieces that they can associate with – when looking at the pieces they feel they know what the artist wants to express and they have an emotional connection. This is what attracts buyers,” she says.
In terms of the value of Macau art, Hiskey says that local artists do not really grasp the idea of calculating the value of their creations. As a result, her gallery advises artists to come up with a formula for the calculation process like their counterparts in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She observes that many artists who are in contact with Flugent have adopted the formula used from Taiwan.
For many private galleries, a significant amount of revenue comes from the transaction of art pieces, and Flugent is also striving to take part in international art fairs in order to strike more deals.
Hiskey believes that art pieces from Macau are a bit “ambiguous” for foreign buyers and they are unable to point out exactly what the characteristics of Macau art are. In fact, foreigners are really keen on understanding more about art from Macau, but do not have enough channels to do so.
Therefore, Flugent is taking on a role to promote local arts and culture. Through participating in overseas art fairs, the gallery hopes to introduce local artists to the world.
“The proportion of Macau galleries joining overseas art fairs is not high. People are really curious, but buyers need time to observe and understand the creations of Macau artists. After they discover that Macau artists are maturing and making progress, international buyers will be more confident in collecting Macau art pieces.
“As a result, we have to first show foreigners the local creations and let them know there are talented artists in Macau and the fact that Macau art pieces are worth collecting. Then they will be willing to spend money on Macau art.”
