A major exhibition of rarely seen works by the influential late Chinese-Canadian artist Matthew Wong will open in Venice next year, coinciding with the 61st Biennale.
The show will take place at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (9 May-1 November), and will include 35 works dating from 2015 to 2019. It will, according to a project statement, “explore interiors, both physical and psychological”.
The exhibition is organised by the Matthew Wong Foundation, which was founded by the artist's parents Monita Wong and Raymond KP Wong in 2020, following the artist's death by suicide in 2019.
The exhibition's curator John Cheim, a founding partner of Cheim & Read gallery, says in a statement: “The exploration of the interior has long been a central concern in modern and post-war art—from the vibrantly coloured and patterned domestic scenes of Matisse and Vuillard to the emotionally charged spaces of Munch, Van Gogh, and Duchamp.
“Matthew synthesised these traditions into a unique visual language, employing dense colour and expressive brushwork to transform rooms into vivid, non-naturalistic settings.” The exhibition catalogue includes a text by Nancy Spector, who stepped down as chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum in 2020.
In 2020, the writer Kenny Schachter discussed Wong’s meteoric rise and the impact of his death. An obituary in The New York Times described Wong as “a promising self-taught painter whose vibrant landscapes, forest scenes and still-lifes were just beginning to command attention and critical acclaim”.
The exhibition announcement comes following the opening of the Matthew Wong Foundation headquarters in Edmonton, Canada, designed by Oregon-based ZGF Architects. According to the foundation website, key initiatives include the production of publications on Wong’s diverse artistic output and ongoing research for a catalogue raisonné of his paintings and drawings.
A statement from the foundation says: “The foundation has also preserved Wong’s studio and materials in their entirety, all of which is now housed in the foundation’s headquarters. The Matthew Wong Foundation will organise a rotating exhibition programme to encourage curators and scholars to explore new thematic concepts within and surrounding the oeuvre of Matthew Wong.” The Venice show will form part of this deepening research.