Trail of Matteo Ricci – 2026.01.13
The Rui Cunha Foundation opens today, Tuesday, January 13th at 6:30pm, the Collective Art Exhibition “Trail of Matteo Ricci”, by PhD students from the Department of Art and Design at University of Macau, under the academic supervision of Professor Zhang Yan (張彥). The project is curated by artists Li Ranqing (李然青) and Lei Meihang (雷美航). The organization was undertaken by the Center for Chinese History and Culture at UM.
A total of 33 artworks will be displayed, in China ink and color pigments, resulting from a field trip organized in 2025, departing from Macau to the interior of China and then Italy, retracing the itinerary of the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci, a founding figure of Catholic missions in China more than four centuries ago. The topic had long intrigued Zhang Yan, who comes from the city of Zhaoqing, through which the missionary passed at the end of the 16th century, bringing echoes of the West.
«Initiated by Professor Zhang Yan, Director of the Center for Chinese History and Culture at University of Macau, the exhibition brings together 18 artists who retraced Ricci’s journey from Italy to China. Traveling from Macau to Guangzhou, Zhaoqing and Shaoguan [Guangdong province], and from there to Rome, Macerata, Genoa, Venice, Milan, and Florence, we used the brush and ink of traditional Chinese painting as our historical pen, to complete this cross-temporal quest for roots. As curator, I envision this creation as a contemporary field practice of Chinese painting, woven around the 400-year-old route of cultural exchange. As one of the participating artists, I also know well that each work embodies the hesitation, transformation, and resonance experienced during the on-site creation», explains Li Ranqing.
The 33 works on display «retain much of the “on-site temperature”: The wind-scattered cracks on the Xuan rice paper and the street dust on the edges of pastel paintings are not imperfections, but natural extensions of the Chinese painting philosophy of “observing things through inner vision”. We chose to present the exhibition in Macau because it is not only the starting point of Ricci’s journey, but also the spiritual anchor of our creation».
«When you see the setting sun over ancient Rome in the ink wash and the corner of a Lingnan alley in the pastels, you are facing not just landscapes, but a gentle touch between two civilizations accomplished through art. Just as Matteo Ricciintroduced Western learning to China through Chinese translation centuries ago, we use the language of Chinese painting to attempt transforming this trajectory across mountains and seas into an ongoing dialogue between civilizations», the artist and curator concludes.
The exhibition was co-organized by the Traditional Chinese Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association; the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Artists Alliance; and the Landscape Painting Art Committee of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The art project also benefited from the support given by the Guangdong Provincial International Cultural Exchange Center and the Guangdong Artists Association.
The exhibition will be open until January 24th, 2026.
Admission is free.
Don’t miss it!
For Macau, Further and Higher!
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