“Martin Wong boldly defied the notion of boundary. As an artist, he overhauled assumptions that a painter is defined by their identity. Within his work he embraced the complexity and hybrid nature of urban culture—mixing everything from graffiti and Chinese calligraphy, to West Coast and East Coast styles, to star constellations and crumbling tenement walls of the Lower East Side. We are looking forward to finally examining his entire career at the Bronx Museum, and to sharing his work once again with one of the cities he called home.” — Holly Block, Executive Director of The Bronx Museum of the Arts
Brainwashing Cult Cons Top TV Star, 1981. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Collection of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Gift of JP Morgan Chase
Silence, 1982. Acrylic on canvas, 56 x 31 ½ inches. Collection of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Purchase made possible through a gift of the Martin Wong Foundation and a bequest of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, by exchange
Starry Night, 1982. Oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches. Collection of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Gift of Suzy and Joseph Berland
Attorney Street (Handball Court with Autobiographical Poem by Piñero), 1982-1984. Oil on canvas, 35 ½ x 48 inches. Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Edith C. Blum Fund
The Annunciation According to Mikey Piñero (Cupcake and Paco), 1984. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 72 inches. Courtesy of the Syracuse University Art Collection
Chain Saw Valentine (Portrait of Joaquin Angaza), 1984. Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the Syracuse University Art Collection
Closed, 1984-1985. Acrylic on canvas, 84 x 108 inches. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of Diane and Steven Jacobson
Sweet ‘Enuff, 1987. Acrylic on canvas. Two panels, 69 ¾ x 64 ½ and 72 x 62 ½ inches. Collection of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, Gift of Judy and Michael Moe
Big Heat, 1988. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 60 x 48 inche. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Purchase with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee
Rapture, 1988. Acrylic on canvas, 45 x 64 x 2 inches. Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of The Martin Wong Foundation and Accessions Committee Fund purchase
In the Studio, 1992. Acrylic on linen, 30 inch diameter. Collection of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Purchase with Asian American Art Fund
Images courtesy The Bronx Museum of the Arts. Installation photo by Joel Greenberg.