City U design students showcase artworks in exhibition

Mason Chao and Michael Yang

The City University of Macau hosted a one-day exhibition titled “We Are Who U See Now,” on Saturday, showcasing the graphic design works of two undergraduate students majoring in Environmental Design.

Tackling the exploration of a teenager’s inner self, the university’s first double-solo exhibition features 40 works of Mason Chao and Michael Yang, which will soon be available for purchase in local stores.

According to one of the exhibition’s curators, Anastacia Lew, the works express teenagers’ emotions, particularly young love, isolation and unspoken thoughts.

“They think expressing themselves is very important and [that] it’s really significant to pay attention to teenagers,” she said of the two artists, who are in their early 20s.

“This exhibition is about themselves, their circles and the community,” Lew added.

Other works in the exhibition include typography, minimalist prints and portraits.

Using Adobe Photoshop to create the masterpieces, one of Yang’s creations is a set of portraits that features a face resembling his own, with chapped lips and bruises.

“All of these represent the inner self of a teenager, and his struggles [with] his dark side,” explained Yang.

“This is how a teenager struggles because his voice is too negligible to be heard [so] I want it to be known to [people],” he continued.

Most of Yang’s artworks are intended to encourage young people to express themselves to the community. 

One of Chao’s collections aims to capture the different personalities and traits of a young person. The set of four artworks present the subject’s multi-faceted persona, comparing them with subjects such as fire, lightning and a leopard.

“Sometimes [we] are as furious and strong as a leopard and other times as passionate as flames. These represent what a teenager is, [so] I try to create works that would speak to people,” said Chao.

Lew revealed that the artworks, which are priced between MOP800 and MOP1,500, will be sold at Tom N Tom’s Café. The creators will receive 40 percent of all sales.

According to Lew, they are still in talks with a few other local stores to make their artworks more widely available for purchase. LV