Martin Wong
Martin Wong (1946–1999) is widely recognised for his extraordinary depictions of social, sexual and political scenographies from the United States in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Weaving together narratives of queer existence, marginal communities, and urban gentrification, Wong stands out as an important countercultural voice. Heavily influenced by his immediate surroundings, Wong’s practice merges the visual languages of Chinese iconography, urban poetry, graffiti, carceral aesthetics, and sign language as well as drawing inspiration from the Latin American community he became closely involved with. His work offers an important insight into a decisive period of American history, told through its changing urban landscapes and unfolding hidden desires.
Martin Wong, Untitled (Kids at Statue of Liberty), 1992. Courtesy Alan Lau. Presentation at the 24th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Terra Foundation for American Art © Estate of Martin Wong and P.P.O.W; (background) William Yang, Michael Leslie Dubbo, 1976 (detail). Presentation at the 24th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous assistance from Simon Chan AM Art Atrium Courtesy the artist and State Library New South Wales © William Yang. Installation view, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. Photograph: David James.
Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney
Saturday Night, 1992
acrylic on linen
LA2 – Malicious Mischief (collaboration with LA II), 1997
acrylic on canvas
A Near Miss, 1983
acrylic on canvas
Untitled, 1990
acrylic on canvas
Ferocactus peninsulae v. viscainensis, 1997-98
acrylic on canvas
Presentation at the 24th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Terra Foundation for American Art and the assistance of William Lim, Living Limited. Courtesy William Lim c/o Living Limited
Mintaka, 1990
acrylic on canvas
Mi Vida Loca, 1991
acrylic on canvas
Presentation at the 24th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Terra Foundation for American Art. Courtesy Sunpride Foundation, Hong Kong
Esmeralda: Songs for the Hearing Impaired, 1982
acrylic on canvas
Untitled (Kids at Statue of Liberty), 1992
acrylic on canvas
Presentation at the 24th Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from Terra Foundation for American Art. Courtesy Alan Lau
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the communities of New York’s Lower East Side (known as Loisaida) and Chinatown faced the combined forces of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and gentrification. Straddling the line between observer and voyeur, Wong, a queer artist, spoke openly about his sense of living outside the world he documented.
A self-styled American cowboy, Wong was enthralled by life on the periphery, with prison scenes, racialized bodies, brick walls, and odes to broken hearts recurring throughout his work. Alongside carefully rendered scenes of graffiti and street culture, stylised symbols of American Sign Language (ASL) (reminiscent of covert signals used by the city’s gay community), astrological signs, constellations, as well as Chinese ideograms are repeated. The Lower East Side of Wong’s paintings, where codes of the street met codes of the cosmos, much like a dream to its dreamer, was out of his reach yet of his making. After a career spent pursuing an understanding of both America and his place in it, Wong died of an AIDS-related illness in his parents’ care in San Francisco. Cacti and succulents planted in his mother’s garden appear in one of his final series as a beautiful, resilient and alien form.