The Art World Remembers Matthew Wong, Self-Taught Painter of Vibrant Landscapes, Who Has Died at 35
On Sunday, the New York gallery Karma announced in an Instagram post that Matthew
Wong, one of the artists in its stable, had died on Wednesday
October 2. He was 35. The cause was suicide.
Trained as a photographer and practicing as a poet, Wong began
using his Facebook page while living in Hong Kong to engage
artists, dealers, and collectors on the nature of painting, and how
one develops a painting practice. By 2014, he was making canvases
himself, and posting them to the same Facebook page, where
participants in the dialogue could jump into the comments section
and opine on the work.
One of those participants was John Cheim, the owner of Chelsea
gallery Cheim & Read, who then introduced his work to White Columns
director Matthew Higgs. By 2016 Wong had set up a studio in
Edmonton, Canada. There, he devoted himself to painting, creating
lush landscapes that nodded at Milton Avery while not shying away
from his self-taught status.
In the summer of 2016, Higgs placed two paintings by Wong in a
show he arranged at Karma Amagansett. During that show, Wong
met Brendan Dugan, Karma’s founder, and they began to work
together.
Matthew Wong, Youth (2016).
Courtesy: Karma.
In 2017, one of his works was acquired by the Dallas Museum of
Art during the Dallas Art Fair, and later that year he was featured
in a group show at that city’s Galerie Frank Elbaz. In 2018, he
made his solo debut at Karma, which was was rapturously received.
Jerry Saltz called it “one of the most impressive solo New York
debuts I’ve seen in a while.”
It was also around the middle of 2018 that I met Matthew, having
been introduced to him by Dugan, and had the pleasure of hanging
with him and his mother, Monita, at art fairs where he had works
for sale. In February, during Frieze Los Angeles, the two of us
bombed into the Chateau Marmont after a dinner at the Beverly Hills
Hotel and stayed until late in the evening, commandeering a couch
and talking about his show that was currently up at Massimo de
Carlo in Hong Kong.
During Art Basel in Basel earlier this year, he came to the
annual fondue dinner I host, and I was delighted to single him out
in my toast as an artist at the dinner among a sea of dealers and
journalists. We spent the whole night sparring with the other
attendees over what was the best work up in the city while everyone
drank schnapps and dunked hunk after hunk of bread into molten
cheese. A perfect evening.
Wong, at far left, walking through the
Annual Art Basel Fondue Dinner. Photo: Nate Freeman.
While he was not in London last week during Frieze, he was
represented by a gorgeous landscape painting from 2019 at the Karma
booth. It depicted a solitary figure walking out into a snowy
expanse. The title was See You On the Other Side.
Matthew Wong, See You On the Other
Side (2019). Courtesy Karma.
Here, a few dealers, collectors, and fellow artists share
memories of Matthew Wong.
Jonas Wood, artist
So sad that Matthew took his own life. He was a great guy, him
and his mom were inseparable, they came to the studio a few times.
We spent time together in NYC, and wrote to each other a lot.
He knew everything I ever made. He stood in front of my Japanese
landscape painting when I had just finished it in my studio and he
said, “This will be Japanese Garden
3.” Ha! He knew what I was gonna title the painting before
I had signed it. I asked Brendan about this later and he said he
had studied all my work. And that just blew me away. He had a huge
appetite for looking and studying art he was interested in. And not
just art—fashion, music, poetry. He will be missed dearly by many
and I believe will influence generations to come. He was the modern
day Van Gogh.
Claudia Albertini, director, Massimo De Carlo Hong
Kong
I was indeed deeply saddened to know about Matthew, and I still
cannot believe he has gone.
I met Matthew in 2014. At that time I was working for a
different gallery, Platform China, and I used to run their project
space in Hong Kong.
I remember Matthew reached out to me, he was very curious about
an artist I was working with and had just exhibited at the gallery,
Ma Ke. Matthew really liked his works, especially his paper works.
Not long after I knew Matthew was a painter and poet. He then
showed me some of his early works, which were very unique and
extremely intriguing.
Unfortunately, soon after then, I lost touch with him. I knew
later Matthew and his family moved from Hong Kong, but wasn’t able
to contact him. It was not till two years ago when Mr. De Carlo
asked whether I knew an artist called Matthew Wong that I
immediately went back to my memory. I tried to find him, and here
he was, at his fabulous solo show at Karma.
On January 10th we opened his solo here in Hong Kong. I remember
the day after the opening Matthew came back to the gallery, and he
came back every single day for the time he was in Hong Kong. He
would spend minutes in front of his paintings and he would remember
perfectly clearly in his mind the moment and every single brush
stroke he did. He would look at these infinite landscapes as if he
was re-running them through…
It was one of the most touching moments. Matthew was so
sensitive, and very, very deep. Matthew was real—a pure, real soul.
Such a loss for this world. And I do really mean it.
Installation show of Matthew Wong’s solo
show at Karma in 2018. Courtesy Karma.
John Cheim, owner, Cheim & Read
Apparently Matthew touched many people’s lives. He certainly did
mine. The first time we communicated was through Facebook. He asked
me if I could recommend an oil paint brand as he was going to begin
to paint. This must have been 4 or 5 years ago . I suggested
Williamsburg Paint—a paint that had its beginnings in the studio of
Milton Resnick, a painter Matthew admired. Subsequently, he showed
me some of his beautiful large black ink drawings and I acquired
one. Over the years he would continue to ask my advice and I
enjoyed his conversations about all subjects—art, film,
politics—and he was extremely bright, sensitive, and knowledgeable.
And from that first foray into oil paint he quickly mastered the
medium and began to make intensely beautiful paintings . Only a
week ago I sent him a picture of our dog Ella. He asked if he could
make a gouache of it and within the day he sent back an image of
beautiful work on paper.
It pains me greatly to have lost him. Somehow I feel that if I
could have just picked up on something he inferred I might have
diverted his path.
Frank Elbaz, owner, Galerie Frank Elbaz
I’m very sad. I had very good moments and big fights with him
but he was a genius, really. He drove me crazy and gave me a really
hard time, but I will love him forever. 
Wong in his studio. Courtesy
Altermodernists.
Matthew Higgs, director, White Columns
I think I was the first person to show Matthew’s work in the
2016 exhibition “Outside” that I curated for Karma in Amagansett.
Matthew came down from Canada for the opening, which is where he
met Brendan Dugan—the beginning of their friendship/collaboration.
This is what I said about the exhibition in the press release:
“The ‘outside’ alluded to in the exhibition’s title is as much a
physical place (i.e. the world around us) as it is a psychological
state (as evidenced by the mercurial sensibilities of so-called
‘Outsider’ art.) It is in this liminal space—between what can be
measured or depicted and that which remains
unknowable—that Outside seeks to operate. The artists
in Outside, of many generations, both conventionally and
unconventionally trained, subscribe to no recognizable ideology or
tendency. If Kippenberger had his
‘psychobuildings’, Outside has its ‘psychogeographies’ or
perhaps more accurately its
‘psychotopographies.’ Outside ultimately suggests that
our sense of ‘place’—like our sense of ‘self’—remains elusive: a
shape-shifting terrain, constantly in flux.”
I think this still describes how I feel/felt about Matthew and
his work. He was a very special person and a truly brilliant
artist…
Jonathan Travis, art collector
Matthew and I connected first after I bought one of his paintings
in 2017, before his solo show at Karma. He was so appreciative of
the support, and it was immediately clear we had similar taste in
art. We ended up becoming friends, texting often about art and pop
culture, and whatever else was on our brains at the moment. We
shared a bunch of great laughs. He had a childlike
innocence to him, but also clearly a brilliant mind. I will
miss him greatly. I already do.
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Painter of Vibrant Landscapes, Who Has Died at 35 appeared
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