This is the fifth Autumn Salon jointly presented by Art for All Society (AFA) and Orient Foundation. Recalling the time when I first had the idea of organizing an Autumn Salon resembling the Salon d'Automne in Paris, where artists can mingle and art lovers can bring home their favourite art pieces, a friend mocked at the idea believing that no one in Macau buy arts and that we need at least two more decades to follow the steps of Hong Kong and Taiwan. These pessimistic comments have been lingering in my head but have never weakened the determination to make the Autumn Salon happen. In reviewing the past four years, although the sales track record is not particularly remarkable, the acceptance of buying art locally has increased a lot. AFA has also been able to sell many artworks by means of the platforms we have in Macau and Beijing as well as by participating in various art fairs abroad. Aside from paintings and sculptures, our buyers also bought artworks which are “harder to interpret” like photographs and video works. We are looking forward to the day when we will have buyers acquiring the installation works…
We can see the changes in local art scene from the time when we first organized Autumn Salon by inviting art masters to join until today the Salon is open solely for artists applying to participate. We are happy to see there are fewer artists who take part merely for prizes and more artists who have ideas and opinions and will continue to create with passion. With our society and its people becoming more progressive, we will certainly see the emergence of more young artists and inspiring artworks. I believe the path we are paving will become broader.
On behalf of AFA, I would like to thank all the art loving founders of the Autumn Salon as well as Orient Foundation, especially Ms Ana Paula Cleto, for their trust and support. I hope in five year’s time when we celebrate the tenth Autumn Salon, we will still be doing our little secret tradition before the opening and will continue to walk down this road with our passion, belief and obsession until there are no more pessimistic views when comparing Macau to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
James Chu - Curator
