Matthew Wong
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Untitled, 2018
He (Matthew Wong) had a huge appetite for looking and studying art he was interested in. And not just art—fashion, music, poetry. He will be missed dearly by many and I believe will influence generations to come. He was the modern day Van Gogh. - Jonas Wood
Matthew Wong was born in Toronto on March 8, 1984. His parents, who worked with textiles and fashion, emigrated to Hong Kong when he was seven.
The family returned to Canada when he was fifteen. An only child, Wong was diagnosed with autism, Tourette syndrome and suffered from bouts of depression. The family hoped that he would receive medical help with his diagnoses in Canada.
Wong attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He graduated with a degree in Cultural Anthropology in 2007 and returned to Hong Kong after graduation.
In 2010, Wong attended the City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media, and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography in 2012. After graduating, Wong began to draw and, in 2014, he began to paint.
He taught himself about art and artists by visiting museums and galleries, reading and interacting with artists on Facebook.
In 2015, Wong had a small solo exhibit at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Center. The images of his work were posted on line and began to garner attention. In 2016, his works were included in a show, at Karma Gallery, that included both formally trained and ‘outsider’ artists. His paintings sold and his works began to gain more attention.
He had his first solo exhibit at Karma in 2018. It was a huge success.
A second solo exhibit was planned at Karma for November 2019. Matthew Wong took his own life on October 2, 2019. He was 35.
The show, Matthew Wong: Blue, opened, posthumously on November 8, as planned, with no works for sale.
His first large painting available at auction, The Realm of Appearances, was sold in July 2020 for $1.82 million, twenty times its original estimate. In December 2020, a painting called River at Dusk was sold for $4.86 million, four times its original estimate.
In 2020, The Matthew Wong Foundation was established by his mother and father in Edmonton, where the artist lived and worked. The Foundation will continue to curate his work and host an artist residency program.
The works of Matthew Wong can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Met, the Morgan Library, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Dallas Museum of Art and other major venues.
References:
Nate Freeman. The Art World Remembers Matthew Wong, Self-Taught Painter of Vibrant Landscapes, Who Has Died at 35. Artnet. October 7, 2019.
Roberta Smith. A Final Rhapsody in Blue From Matthew Wong. The New York Times. December 27, 2019.
Neil Gunslinger. Matthew Wong, Painter on Cusp of Fame, Dies at 35. The New York Times. October 21, 2019.
Roberta SmithMartha Schwendener and Will Heinrich. What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week. The New York Times. April 11, 2018.
Raffi Khatchadourian. Matthew Wong’s Life in Light and Shadow. The New Yorker. May 9, 2022.