Martin Wong at Camden Art Centre

July 22, 2023

Malicious Mischief is the current exhibition at Camden Art Centre, London.

Martin Wong (1946-1999) was a Chinese American artist working in San Francisco, then New York, for much of his life. As a gay artist with Chinese immigrant parents, his work centres around identity and life in New York city during the 70's - featuring his friends, their experiences with drugs, prison, and as homosexuals, and their subsequent relationship to the law and its enforcers. 

With near life size paintings of the locked up store fronts of recession-hit New York in the 70's, the physicality of the works makes them near sculptural - allowing you to feel like you are stepping in to his world. 

Glass cabinets containing correspondence and ephemera from Wong's life, as well as poetry zines and pamphlets - convey the rich subcultural scene that he was a part of. A one-time member of the Cockettes - a psychedelic hippy dance troupe from San Franicsco that at one point included Divine, of John Waters' film fame, Wong contributed to his local arts scenes in manifold ways. 

 

 

 

Camden Art Centre

Arkwright Road

London N3

Free

 

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