The Matthew Wong Foundation, established in 2020 to preserve the legacy of acclaimed Chinese-Canadian painter Matthew Wong (1984–2019), is entering a phase of deepening its commitment to scholarship and broadening its public reach.
This autumn, the Foundation has opened a new headquarters featuring the artist’s complete archive, as well as an exhibition space and study centre for scholars and curators. The Foundation is also organising Matthew Wong: Interiors, a major solo exhibition to be shown concurrently with the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. This dual initiative cements the Foundation’s mission of increasing the public’s appreciation of the artist while enabling new avenues of research into his oeuvre.
On view from May 9th through November 1st, 2026 at the historic Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Matthew Wong: Interiors is curated by John Cheim. It will feature approximately 35 rarely seen and never-before-exhibited paintings and works on paper by Wong that explore interiors, both physical and psychological. The exhibition is the first to focus on this important theme in Wong’s body of work and will be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue published by the Foundation with a text by renowned art historian and curator Nancy Spector.
Exhibition curator John Cheim, who mentored Wong early in his career, said,
“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.”
Monita Wong, the artist’s mother and Chair of the Foundation Board, said,
“It is deeply meaningful to bring this exhibition to the Venice Biennale, which played a pivotal role in Matthew’s development as an artist. Following his shifts as a docent in the Hong Kong Pavilion, he would spend hours viewing art throughout the city. Not long after his time in Venice, Matthew began to experiment with charcoal and ink on paper and taught himself how to use oil paint. Now, with the opening of our new Foundation headquarters, we are ensuring that the full context of Matthew’s creative life—including those initial shifts and inspirations —is permanently preserved for scholars and the public.”
The Foundation’s new home in Edmonton, designed by ZGF Architects, solidifies the institution’s role as the central repository for materials related to Wong’s legacy. Crucially, it preserves Wong’s studio in its entirety, offering a powerful window into his working methods and creative environment. The opening of the headquarters also provides dedicated exhibition and study space for researchers, curators, and students, ensuring that new scholarship continues to enrich the appreciation of Wong’s practice. In years to come, the Matthew Wong Foundation will organise a rotating exhibition programme to encourage curators and scholars to explore new themes within and surrounding the artist’s work. The Matthew Wong Foundation will also host an artist residency programme. The residency will provide support for artists to live and work in Edmonton with the ability to access and research Matthew Wong’s art and archive.
About the artist
Matthew Wong (1984–2019) was a self-taught Chinese-Canadian painter whose emotionally charged works earned him international recognition during a career that lasted only seven years. Born in Toronto and raised between Canada and Hong Kong, Wong earned a Bachelor of Arts in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan and a Master of Fine Arts in photography from the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. The artist, who lived with autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and depression, died by suicide in Edmonton at the age of thirty-five. Wong began painting seriously in 2012, initially exploring abstraction before opting for figuration in 2015. He developed a distinctive visual language that blended Chinese, European, and American artistic traditions. Working primarily in oils, gouache, and ink, Wong created luminous imaginary landscapes and introspective interiors that are characterised by a striking sense of colour and dynamic mark-making. His compositions, often drawn from memory, evoke solitude and longing.
Wong’s work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Morgan Library, New York; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Dallas Museum of Art; and The York School, Toronto. The first comprehensive retrospective of his work was presented at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2021, followed by the Dallas Museum of Art in 2022 and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2023. In 2024, the Van Gogh Museum staged a major exhibition pairing Wong’s paintings with those of Van Gogh, one of his greatest influences. The exhibition subsequently travelled to the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Albertina Museum in Vienna.
About: The Matthew Wong Foundation was established in 2020 in commemoration of Chinese Canadian artist Matthew Wong (1984–2019). The Foundation is dedicated to preserving Wong’s art and legacy and to fostering its study and appreciation. In Matthew’s honour, the Foundation also provides grants to support emerging artists and organisations dedicated to mental health, including those focused on autism and Tourette’s syndrome. The Matthew Wong Foundation was founded by Monita Wong and Raymond KP Wong, the artist’s mother and father. MORE: matthewwongfoundation.org
