Martin Wong

American, 1946-1999

Martin Wong was a Chinese American painter whose work captured the cultural and architectural fabric of urban life in late 20th-century America. Best known for his depictions of New York City’s Lower East Side, Wong’s style merged graffiti and symbolism with a precise rendering of brick facades and cityscapes.

Born in Portland, Oregon in 1946 and raised in San Francisco, Wong studied ceramics and art at Humboldt State University before turning to painting full-time in the mid-1970s. Early in his career, he was involved in San Francisco’s performance art scene, working with groups like the Angels of Light. In 1978, he relocated to New York City, where he would produce the majority of his mature work.

Wong’s paintings are often intimate narratives, reflecting on race, sexuality, and the communities around him. He became closely associated with the Lower East Side art scene and developed friendships with artists, poets, and graffiti writers, many of whom appeared in his work. His canvases portrayed coded references, particularly drawn from Chinese culture, American Sign Language, and urban signage.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Wong gained critical recognition with solo exhibitions and inclusion in major institutional shows. His work was collected by museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. In 1994, due to declining health from AIDS-related complications, Wong returned to San Francisco to live with his mother. Today, Martin Wong is remembered as a singular voice in American painting, offering a complex portrait of city life and identity during a transformative era.