Matthew Wong
b. 1984, Canada
d. 2019
Matthew Wong (b. 1984, Toronto, Canada; d. 2019, Edmonton, Canada) was a self-taught Canadian artist whose vibrant landscapes evoke the spirit of Post-Impressionist painters like Vincent van Gogh and Paul Sérusier. With his signature style, Wong synthesised forms, bold colours, and mystical themes, creating rich, evocative scenes that often convey a melancholic yearning.Wong’s artworks are visual poems that speak to the subjectivity of colour and the power of universal archetypes. In his landscapes, nature is the chief protagonist, animated with a vitality that transcends time and space. Through bold strokes of colour and the sparest of details, Wong creates scenes that resonate with melancholic tenderness and humour, conveying the ineffable states of being that inhabit the human experience. Wong has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions, includingThe New World, Paintings from Los Angeles 2016, Cheim & Read, New York (2021); Blue View, Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario (2021); Footprints in the Wind, Ink Drawings 2013–2017, Cheim & Read, New York (2021); Postcards, ARCH, Athens (2020); Blue, Karma, New York (2019); Day by Night, MASSIMODECARLO Hong Kong (2019); Karma, New York (2018); Good Bad Brush with Peter Shear, The Occasional, Burlington, Washington (2016); Pulse of the Land, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong (2015); Chapter One, Cuiheng Art Museum, Zhongshan, China (2014); among others.
Wong’s work is held in notable public collections across the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Esteé Lauder Collection, New York; Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario.