Martin Wong
Malicious Mischief
Exhibition — Nov 3, 2023 until Apr 1, 2024
The major survey exhibition Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief presents work by Chinese-American artist Martin Wong. The exhibition spans the breadth of his practice including painting, drawing, and ceramic sculpture, as well as personal memorabilia.
SOCIAL, SEXUAL, AND POLITICAL THEMES IN THE US FROM 1970s to 1990s
Martin Wong’s practice draws on and merges various visual languages, including Chinese iconography, portraiture, landscape, 'urban poetry', graffiti and sign language. Recognised for his depictions of social, sexual, and political scenographies in the United States from 1970s to 1990s, he weaves together narratives of queer existence, marginal communities, and urban gentrification. Emerging as an important countercultural voice at odds with the art establishment’s reactionary discourse at the time, his work offers an insight into decisive periods of recent United States history. In the role of an urban chronicler and a critical observer, Wong poetically portrays social realism while opening up spaces of beauty and inclusion. Within these spaces, the existing social relations of class, race, and sexual orientation can be reconsidered and reshaped.
Wong brings to life stories that are still relevant today
An influential counterpoint to the art world
A mix of various appealing visual styles
THE EXHIBITION
Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief is presented in thematic rooms, guided by Wong’s own artistic biography, including: Wong’s multi-layered universe as seen through his early paintings, poems and sculptures made in the euphoric 1960s and early 1970s environments of San Francisco and Eureka, California, where he grew up as the only son of American-born Chinese parents; his iconic 1980s and 1990s paintings of a dilapidated New York City, made during his time on the Lower East Side; as well as his reminiscences on the imagery of the East and West Coast Chinatowns, made prior to his premature death from an HIV/AIDS-related illness.
MALICIOUS MISCHIEF
The exhibition is named after a series of significant eponymous works from 1991–98 that broadly represent the concept of the “outlaw,” which Wong embraced and fetishised throughout his career.
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On Stedelijk Studies there's an essay No White in Sight written by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei.
Credits
1. Martin Wong, Tell My Troubles to the Eight Ball (Eureka), 1978–1981. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation en P.P.O.W, New York. © Martin Wong Foundation.
2. Installation view, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2023, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
3. Installation view, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2023, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
4. Martin Wong, Malicious Mischief, 1991. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation en P.P.O.W, New York. © Martin Wong Foundation.
5. Installation view, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2023, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
6. Martin Wong, Psychiatrists Testify: Demon Dogs Drive Man to Murder, 1980. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation, P.P.O.W, New York en Galerie Buchholz. © Martin Wong Foundation.
7. Martin Wong, Sacred Shroud of Pepe Turcel, 1990. Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation en P.P.O.W, New York. © Martin Wong Foundation.
8. Installation view, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2023, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
9. Installation view, Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, 2023, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief is initiated by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen and Agustín Pérez Rubio, and produced in collaboration with Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid; Camden Art Centre, London; and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. The accompanying publication is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
The exhibition has been supported by the Dutch government: an indemnity grans has been provided by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands on behalf of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science.
For this exhibition the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is generously supported by the Cultuurfonds.
