Hei Lok | Art Macao: Macao International Art Biennale 2025 | Sands Resorts Macao

Artist: Hei Lok

Hei Lok is a distinguished artist, curator, and cultural advocate, born into a renowned art family in Macao. Focusing on Macao’s people, landscape, and heritage, his artworks are known for their refined technique and emotional depth. He has held solo exhibitions in Macao, Hong Kong, and Portugal, earning wide recognition for his vivid portrayal of local cultural identity.

As President of the Macau Artists Society and a two-term Council Member of the China Artists Association, Lok has long been dedicated to fostering artistic and cultural exchanges between Macao and Tibet, continuing his father Cheong Lok ’s legacy in cross-regional cooperation.

Beyond his artistic practice, he actively promotes art education, co-founding the “Rainbow Road” Ethnic Region Youth Art Education Charity Campaign, which has brought creative inspiration to ethnic minority students.

In 2014, he completed a 100-meter-long historical scroll painting Macao: Back to Common Roots with fiber-tip pens, later adapted into a documentary of the same name in 2021, offering a cross-disciplinary retelling of Macao’s 500-year history and contributing to local patriotic education.

Artworks

Dawn of Apollo (2025)

Fiber-glass, 210cm (H) CM

Hei Lok, through his signature Chinese handscroll painting style, created a contemporary expressive sculpture that fuses East and West, past and present, by integrating the Sesame Street character Elmo and the ancient Roman god Apollo. In the artwork, Apollo appears in modern attire, holding a calligraphy brush and draped with Lok’s painted scroll “Voyage Home Across the Mirror Sea,” symbolizing his sacred role in passing down wisdom and the arts. Elmo, joyfully running while carrying the end of the scroll, represents curiosity and the spirit of joyful learning, leading this cultural journey forward.

Centered around Apollo as the god of wisdom, discipline, and the arts, and connected to Elmo’s embodiment of emotional development and eagerness to learn, the sculpture conveys how art and knowledge transcend time to bridge cultures. The scroll’s depiction of Macao’s rich history and cultural fusion resonates with this cross-cultural, cross-temporal dialogue—now passed on to the next generation through Elmo.