Preview our SPRING 2026 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
THE MATTHEW WONG FOUNDATION
Matthew Wong: Interiors
Designed and edited by John Cheim. Text by Nancy Spector.
Wong's affecting exploration of the interior scene's double function—architectural space and receptacle of psychological depth—across never-before-seen paintings and works on paper
Accompanying a landmark solo exhibition presented at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi during the 2026 Venice Biennale, Matthew Wong: Interiors features never-before-seen paintings and works on paper that foreground the artist's flair for domestic interior spaces. The exhibition, which is curated by John Cheim, also features an essay by leading curator and critic Nancy Spector that draws upon newly released archival material held by the Matthew Wong Foundation. In his work, Wong investigates interiority as a critical locus for resistance, reflection and gradual transformation. Through the mediums of painting and drawing, he interrogates the spatial and affective registers of the interior—both as a literal, architectural space and as a metaphor for psychological depth. These works engage with the tensions between containment and expression, memory and presence, proposing a mode of aesthetic experience that privileges introspection, slowness and affective resonance over spectacle or immediacy. As critic Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times, "These paintings are extremely open and vulnerable. But once they lure you in, they leave you alone to explore their chromatic, spatial and psychological complexities." Upon receiving an MFA in photography from the City University of Hong Kong in 2013, Canadian artist Matthew Wong (1984–2019) pivoted to painting and drawing, teaching himself techniques through online forums and library books. Wong's work began to accrue critical attention just before his early death in 2019. He is best known for his deep-hued, melancholic landscapes populated with semi-organic figures rendered in watercolor, gouache and oil.
“Vertigo” (2019) is reproduced from new release Matthew Wong: Interiors, published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name, opening next week at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi to coincide with the 2026 Venice Biennale. “Many of Wong’s interiors mark time,” Nancy Spector writes in the catalog, published by The Matthew Wong Foundation. “Apparently, he painted furiously, on occasion making up to three works per day, so there could conceivably be morning, afternoon and evening canvases. Like the Impressionists—another central source for his practice—the artist was keenly aware of the changing effects of light throughout the day and how that could impact the optical effects of color. But his paintings were created indoors, a product of the imagination. The light described is thus an inner light, the kind that radiates in one’s dreams.”
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 124 pgs / 52 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $70 GBP £42.00 ISBN: 9798218792619 PUBLISHER: The Matthew Wong Foundation AVAILABLE: 5/19/2026 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by The Matthew Wong Foundation. Designed and edited by John Cheim. Text by Nancy Spector.
Wong's affecting exploration of the interior scene's double function—architectural space and receptacle of psychological depth—across never-before-seen paintings and works on paper
Accompanying a landmark solo exhibition presented at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi during the 2026 Venice Biennale, Matthew Wong: Interiors features never-before-seen paintings and works on paper that foreground the artist's flair for domestic interior spaces. The exhibition, which is curated by John Cheim, also features an essay by leading curator and critic Nancy Spector that draws upon newly released archival material held by the Matthew Wong Foundation.
In his work, Wong investigates interiority as a critical locus for resistance, reflection and gradual transformation. Through the mediums of painting and drawing, he interrogates the spatial and affective registers of the interior—both as a literal, architectural space and as a metaphor for psychological depth. These works engage with the tensions between containment and expression, memory and presence, proposing a mode of aesthetic experience that privileges introspection, slowness and affective resonance over spectacle or immediacy. As critic Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times, "These paintings are extremely open and vulnerable. But once they lure you in, they leave you alone to explore their chromatic, spatial and psychological complexities."
Upon receiving an MFA in photography from the City University of Hong Kong in 2013, Canadian artist Matthew Wong (1984–2019) pivoted to painting and drawing, teaching himself techniques through online forums and library books. Wong's work began to accrue critical attention just before his early death in 2019. He is best known for his deep-hued, melancholic landscapes populated with semi-organic figures rendered in watercolor, gouache and oil.
