Matthew Wong

Matthew Wong (1984, Toronto, Canada; 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’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.

Biography

Solo exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2024
NL, Matthew Wong l Vincent van Gogh: Painting as a Last Resort, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
CH, Matthew Wong l Vincent van Gogh: Painting as a Last Resort, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich
2023
USA, Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances, MFA, Boston
UK, A Brief Window, MASSIMODECARLO, London
USA, Matthew Wong: The Realm of Appearances, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
2022
USA, The New World, Paintings from Los Angeles 2016, Cheim & Read, New York
2021
CDN, Blue View, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
USA, Footprints in the Wind, Ink Drawings 2013–2017, Cheim & Read, New York
2020
GR, Postcards, ARCH, Athens
2019
USA, Blue, Karma, New York
Day By Night, Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong
2016
USA, Good Bad Brush with Peter Shear, The Occasional, Burlington, Washington
2015
HK, Pulse of the Land, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong
2014
PRC, Chapter One, Cuiheng Art Museum, Zhongshan
Group exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2022
F, In Bloom, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Paris
2020
USA, (Nothing but) Flowers, Karma, New York
USA, An Alternative Canon: Art Dealers Collecting Outsider Art Curated by Paul Laster, Andrew Edlin, New York
USA, To Be Determined, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
2019
USA, Away in the Hill, GRIMM Gallery, New york
USA, Reading Painting Curated by Maya Strauss, Seth Becker, Treasure Town, New York
USA, A Cloth Over a Birdcage, Château Shatto, Los Angeles
2018
LB, Trance Curated by Albert Oehlen, Aishti Foundation, Beirut
USA, Monomania Curated by Shaun Ellison and Paul Whiting, George Gallery, New York
USA, Sky Above Clouds, Performance Ski, Aspen
2017
USA, Plastic Surgery, to look like you, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Dallas
B, Flemming Faloon, Office Baroque, Bruxelles
USA, The Horizontal, Cheim and Read, New York
2016
USA, Outside, Karma, Amagansett, New York
USA, Tom Friedman (+The Birthday Show), Gallery 1969, New York
USA, Good Bad Brush, Occasional Gallery, Burlington
USA, Cold Summer Curated by Peter Shear, The Provincial, Kaleva, Michigan

Bibliography

Year
Author, Publication Title, Date
2024
Nayeri, Farah, The New York Times, February 29
2023
Ford, Lauren Moya, Hyperallergenic, January 10
Arn, Jackson, The New Yorker, September 4
Greenberger, Alex, ARTnews.com, July 28
2022
Ocula, June 22
Bourbon, Matthew, The Dallas Morning News, November 3
Khatchadourian, Raffi, The New Yorker, May 9
2021
Russet, Andrew, Artnews, April 13
Parkes, Isabel, Artforum, May
Dafoe, Taylor, Artnet, April
ArtDaily, February
2020
Kinsella, Eileen, Artnet, October
Drake, Cathryn, Artforum, December
2019
Freeman, Nate, Artnet, October 7
Genzlinger, Neil, The New York Times, October 21
Artforum, October 7
Malone, Peter, Hyperallergic, 21 March
2018
Tilley, John Martin, Office Magazine, March 26
Heinrich, Will, The New York Times, 13 April
The New Yorker, 17 April
Saltz, Jerry, Vulture, 19 April
Sutphin, Eric, Art in America, 1 June
Yau, John, Hyperallergic, 21 April
2017
Heinrich, Will, The New York Times, 20 July

Public collections

Country
Location
Canada
Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario
Lebanon
Aïshti Foundation, Beirut
United States of America
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
Esteé Lauder Collection, New York
Guggenheim Museum, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Shop

Downloads

Type
Title
CV
Matthew Wong