Where to find street art in Macao 澳門
Last updated July 8th, 2024
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Rua do Cunha 官也街
Calcada do Quartel 兵房斜巷
Elsewhere in Taipa
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.
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.
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 :)
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 :)