A Macau-born artist and cultural administrator. An award-winning visual artist, he also served as the founding director of the Macao Museum of Art (1999–2008) and as President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (2010–2017), shaping Macau's art development and cultural policy; he returned to his own art after retiring.
Someone who could both paint and run a cultural institution — Ung Vai Meng's two roles trace a through-line of contemporary Macau's cultural development.
Ung Vai Meng is a Macau-born artist and cultural administrator — an award-winning visual artist who was also the founding director of the Macao Museum of Art and a former President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.
Profile
- Chinese Name: 吳衛鳴
- English Name: Ung Vai Meng
- Born: 1958 (Macau)
- Domains: Culture · Visual art
- Subject type: Artist · Cultural administrator
Background
Ung Vai Meng was born in Macau in 1958 and first studied drawing and watercolour under the local master Kam Cheong Leng. In 1986 he won a Macau government scholarship to study at the Porto Art Institute in Portugal, and in 1991 studied painting at the ARCO institute in Lisbon; he later earned a master's at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and a doctorate in art history at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou — trained in both Eastern and Western traditions.
Career
I. The artist
As a visual artist, Ung has won many prizes in painting and printmaking and exhibited across Macau, Portugal, Hong Kong and Europe. After retiring from government he returned to making art and to teaching and supervising doctoral students at a Macau university.
II. Cultural administration
Ung entered Macau's civil service in 1983, starting as a draftsman in the cultural field. From 1999 to 2008 he was the founding director of the Macao Museum of Art, setting its curatorial direction; from March 2010 he served as President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, overseeing Macau's cultural policy, heritage conservation and arts promotion, until his retirement in 2017.
Key Achievements
- Founding director of the Macao Museum of Art (1999–2008)
- President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (2010–2017)
- Award-winning visual artist, exhibited across Greater China and Europe
- Received a Cultural Merit Medal in 1999
Information compiled from publicly available sources (Macao News, Macau Daily Times, Creative Macau, Wikipedia). If anything is inaccurate or needs updating, please contact us — we aim to respond within 48 hours.