Matthew Wong

“Though his distinctive painting style has been variously compared to those of Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Chris Ofili, and Peter Doig, Wong also listed Lee Lozano, Edvard Munch, Lois Dodd, Alex Katz, Xu Wei, and Shitao as influences. Poet and critic John Yau noted that Asian art, especially carved lacquerware, seemed central to his development: ‘In his paintings, Wong has brought together distinct strands of Western and Eastern art and made them into something that is recognizably his. It is not about adapting to one culture or another, but about absorbing as much as he can until the source becomes less and less important to point out. That seems to me to be the future of painting.’ 

‘My process is not limited to the time spent in my studio painting, in fact I would say most of the work is done in idle moments when I am at home daydreaming, or watching movies and listening to music, drinking coffee or going out on walks that have no destination or purpose in mind,’ Wong said in an interview last year. ‘During these in-between moments I’ll often have quick flashes of imagery appear in and out of my thoughts. . . . Living a fairly reclusive life and finding the most stimulation and enjoyment from matters of the mind, it’s inevitable that the solitary nature of this pattern seeps into and informs my work.’“

Matthew Wong (1984 – 2019), ARTFORUM, 7 October 2019