Where to find street art in Macao 澳門 - The Occasional Traveller

Macao is a place of unusual contrasts for me – the mix of Chinese and Portuguese cultures in one place is so baffling and interesting, and while I visited the main sights briefly on my first trip there in 2015, I was keen to see what more Macao had to offer. So when Wego and the Macao Government Tourism Organisation asked me to talk about some unusual things to do in Macao, I put together this guide to street art in Macao and show you some cool spots to find beautiful murals and graffiti-ed walls around this quirky little city.

This post is sponsored by Wego – if you are looking to get the cheapest price for hotels in Macao, they are a useful way to compare the listings on various travel booking sites. You can also easily compare flights from various search engines and make a seamless flight booking on Wego.

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Pin it: Where to find Street Art in Macao

I have street art guides from all around Asia and the world – If you are heading to Macao, why not check out the Hong Kong street art at Central and Sheung Wan which is just an hour’s ferry ride away?

OUTLOUD 響朵 (@outloudmacau)

OUTLOUD street art festival brought street artists based around Asia and Macao (including my favourite Portuguese artist Vhils!) to Macao for the first edition in late 2017, and they are responsible for many of the beautiful works seen in this post.

GANTZ 5 are a local Macanese street art crew consisting of PIBG, K3LL and MCZ who are keen on promoting street art and graffiti in Macao. You will see a bunch of their works all around Macao.

Macao Peninsula 澳门半岛

Praça Ponte Horta 司打囗

This was the main venue of OUTLOUD Street Art Festival in November 2017 so there are plenty of cool new works to check out here. The bulk of the works can be found in the back alley of Hotel Sun Sun (14-16 Praça Ponte e Horta), but don’t forget to cross the street on the other side of the park where there are 3 lovely painted shutters as well. Walk through the archway next to the shutters and find more works hidden along the back lane of Rua de Francisco Antonio.

How to get there: Located on the western side of Macao Peninsula, the closest bus stop/terminal is Praça Ponte Horta. My hotel was near Ponte 16/Sofitel which has free casino shuttles to major ferry/bus interchanges around the island, as well as St Paul’s Ruins – it took about 15-20 minutes walk to this spot.

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Xeme — On the side of Hotel Sun Sun facing the main street. This colourful abstract piece is by HK-based Xeme and I do like the colours and pixelly feel

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Mauy Song Vance — 3 different artists here: the blue garbed dude is by Singaporean artist Song from RSCLS and one of his biggest pieces. the chicken belongs to Thai artist Mauy, the dog skeleton is by China artist Vance and reminds me of Nychos

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Antz Nap Mauy Gantz5 — Local Macanese street artists represent with Gantz5 across the bottom. The characters on top are by Singaporean artist Antz, and Thai artists Nap and Mauy – can you guess which works belong to which artist?

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Devil Roes — A collab between 2 artists – Devil and Roes from Hong Kong. If you look closely, the words spell DEVI with the character (Lizard?) as an L

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Vhils — It’s hard to miss the distinctive style of Portuguese artist Vhils, famous for his portraits of local people made by chipping into the surrounding wall. He had a solo exhibition called Debris here in Macao in 2017 which I wish I could have seen!

Macao Street Art Hotel SunSun Royyaldog — Korean artist Royyal Dog has a beautiful portrait at the Rua do Tesuoro junction. His work features a lot of people wearing traditional Korean garb

Macao Street Art Opp Hotel — Remember to cross the street! These works are by Antz (left), Taiwanese artist ANO (3-eyed fortune cat) and Hong Kong’s Uncle (playing card). Head down that passageway on the left for more works

Macao Street Art Edge — American Edge has a work on this wall of the tunnel, while Chinese crew from Tianjin Sunday Crew have a piece on the facing wall

Macao Street Art Bamboo Antz — In the back alley, Antz’s cheeky monkey (?) pokes its head out of the window alongside Chinese artist Bamboo Yang‘s portrait

Macao Street Art Alexface Nap — On the other side of the corridor, Thai artist Alexface with his signature rabbit-eared creature and fellow countryman Nap who specialises in animals

Patio de Chon Sau 俊秀圍

This little stairway is just off the Ruins of St Paul along a little lane called Calcada do Amparo or Portuguese Street. There are murals and little shops on both sides, and just off this lane is Patio de Chon Sau, an alley lined with green hanging vines, murals on the ground and little cute shops. This is super instagram friendly and very easy to get to!

How to get there: Walk along Rua de Sao Paulo which is connected to the bottom of the stairs of the Ruins of St Paul. Calcada do Amparo is a staircase along Rua de Sao Paulo that connects to Rua da Tercena.

Macao Street Art Calcada Do Amparo — Entering Calcada do Amparo from Rua do Sao Paulo. Love the fake Portuguese Azulejos tile look!

Macao Street Art Calcada Do Amparo Up — This is the view of Calcada do Amparo looking upwards – patio de Chon Sau is to my left

Macao Street Art Patio Chon Sau — Pretty vines covering the street and lots of paintings on the ground

Macao Street Art Patio Chon Sau Jumpshot — Couldn’t resist a jump shot

Macao Street Art PIBG Elephant — Here’s a bonus further up along Rua de Sao Paulo as it becomes Rua de Santo Antonio – a work by Macanese artist PIBG along a playground wall opposite Edificio Nga Keng (Nga Keng Building)

Tak Chun Macao Art Garden 德晉澳門藝術花園

Macao Art Garden is home to various studios and indie art exhibitions that you can pop into – sadly they were in midst of setting up new stuff when I was there so I didn’t get to see anything, and I’d also just missed the Holy Street Style exhibition/party by a month. You can see those street art works outside the building though

How to get there: Tak Chun Macao Art Garden is located along Avenida do Dr Rodrigo Rodrigues. It’s also walkable from the Grand Lisboa or Star World Hotel, the latter is quite useful if you want to hitch a free casino shuttle to Taipa.

Macao Street Art Garden Building — Macao Art Garden is located in an old building but it does have a nice garden patio

Macao Street Art Garden Holy Street Style — Start of the Holy Street Style wall

Macao Street Art Garden Wall — Lots of cars parking so not great pix

Macao Street Art Garden Wall 2 — Will these works be here long term? That I’m not sure about!

Taipa 氹仔

The last time I was in Taipa, I mostly explored the Taipa Houses Museum and the foodie street Rua do Cunha, both of which are still there today and as crowded as before. this time around, I spent more time wandering around the little alleyways and found some cool street artworks in Taipa Village.

How to get there: You can take public buses to Taipa, or if you want to do the free casino shuttle, the closest options to Taipa are the Venetian and Galaxy Hotel. The Venetian is great because there are travellators that will save you some walking, but Galaxy is useful as it connects to other hotels on the Peninsula side – I was near the Macao Art Garden so it was really easy to hop onto the free shuttle from Star World Hotel to Galaxy Hotel.

Rua dos Clerigos 木鐸街

Macao Street Art Taipa PIBG Clerigos — #10 Rua Dos Clerigos is also known as Taipa Art Space, an art gallery. They were showing an exhibition about fireworks manufacturing around Taipa when I visited. That work on the side is more PIBG, local Macanese artist representing

Macao Street Art Taipa Vhils Clerigos — Further down Rua Dos Clerigos on the side of a dilapidated building is another Vhils work

Rua do Cunha 官也街

Macao Street Art Taipa MCZ Clerigos — At the junction of Rua dos Clerigos and Rua do Cunha is this work by Macanese artist MCZ right in front of the Starbucks entrance

Macao Street Art Taipa Cunha Bazaar — The Cunha Bazaar is great for Macanese designed souvenirs, but also has a lovely large mural on the side of its building that faces towards

Macao Street Art Taipa Cunha Birds — I found this next to Koi Kei, right opposite Cunha Bazaar

Macao Street Art Taipa MCZ Vang Kei — Another work by MCZ for Cafe Veng Kei. I popped upstairs for some instant noodles and milk tea

Macao Street Art Taipa Vhils Staircase — Vhils again right at the staircase or Escada do Coxo. There are also 2 pretty electrical boxes right in front of it

Calcada do Quartel 兵房斜巷

Macao Street Art Taipa Sik Robot — This cheery robot is by Chinese artist Sik or @sik13 on instagram

Macao Street Art Taipa Ho Chi Kei — This work by Macanese illustrator Ho Chi Kei is just one of several for the Macao CEM who controls energy and power in Macao. Each side of this box next to Carmo Hall/Auditorio do Carmo has a different artwork by a different artist, and there are apparently 2 more boxes like this at Rua da Barca and Yat Yuen Canidrome

Elsewhere in Taipa

Macao Street Art Taipa MCZ Chicken — I found this work along Largo Maia de Margalhaes by MCZ for O Santos. It’s right opposite Fong Da Coffee

Macao Street Art Taipa Roti — A little bit further down from O Santos was this mural on the side of a Roti store

Macao Street Art Taipa Gantz5 Regedor — This random Gantz5 work I came across while walking over from Galaxy Hotel at the junction of Rua do Pai Kok and Rua do Regedor

This post is sponsored by Wego in collaboration with the Macao Government Tourism Organisation.

Have I missed out on any secret street art hot spots in Macao? Let me know if you’ve spotted any cool works in your own explorations of Macao by dropping a note in the comments. Also, check out my guide to Taipa and Coloane away from the glitzy casinos of Cotai.

For more street art, check out all my guides to street art in Singapore, Asia and beyond.

ROA street art locations around the world – my sightings

Where to find street art in Kaohsiung: Weiwuying Street Art Village 衛武營街頭藝術彩繪

Istanbul Kadikoy Street Art Canavar Cins Rad

Where to find Street Art in Kadikoy, Istanbul

Tania Gromenko

Wednesday 17th of October 2018

Some of these are just mind-boggling pieces of art. I would love seeing a few of these when I next travel Macau. Macau has been on my list for a while now.

Jaclynn Seah

Outloud Macau is running their next festival quite soon, so I think you'll have even more new works to discover when you go there :)

Kathi

Saturday 29th of September 2018

These are all incredible! I love Vhils pieces - they have so much texture and meaning! Thanks for sharing - need to add Macau to my street art city bucket list!

Hope you get the chance to visit soon :)