Artist Biography
Wong Hoy Cheong (b. 1960, George Town, Malaysia, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) examines global migration, trade, ethnicity and colonialism, particularly within Southeast Asia. His work considers how these forces impact people, culture and capital, shaping the course of history and contemporary life. With a practice spanning a wide range of media, Wong questions the systems of power that serve as a common thread through these themes.
Trained in literature and pedagogy before formally studying painting, Wong later expanded his practice to include photography, film, performance and installation—forms that enabled a deeper sense of collaboration and viscerality.. In his seminal installation Re:Looking (2002), he examines how the mechanisms of media blur fact and fiction to influence public opinion. Set in a living room interior, viewers watch an investigative documentary exploring a fictional reversal of history—the impact of a fabricated Malaysian imperial rule on postcolonial Austria.
Wong obtained his BA in Literature from Brandeis University, Waltham in 1982, his MEd from Harvard University, Cambridge in 1984 and his MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1986. His work is held in numerous collections including the Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka; Canberra Institute of Art; Fondazione Cassa Di Risparmio Di Modena; Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon; National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Singapore Art Museum; and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Notable exhibitions include SUNSHOWER (2017), National Art Center, Tokyo and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Artist and Empire (2016), National Gallery Singapore; Go-Betweens (2014), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; The Other and Me (2014), Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah; No Country, Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia (2013), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Negotiating Home, History and Nation (2011), Singapore Art Museum; Roving Eye (2011), Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand; Wong Hoy Cheong 2002-2007 (2008), NUS Museum, Singapore; Naked Life (2006), Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei; Selected Works 1984-2004 (2004), National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; slight shifts (2004), Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; and fact-fiction (2004), Kunsthalle, Vienna. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including the 21st Biennial of Sydney (2018); Live and Let Live (2009), 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale; The Spectacle of the Everyday (2009), 10th Lyon Biennale; A World Where Many Worlds May Fit (2008), 6th Taipei Biennial; Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary (2007), 10th Istanbul Biennial; International 04 (2004), 3rd Liverpool Biennial; Dreams and Conflicts (2003), 50th Venice Biennale; Man + Space (2000), 3rd Gwangju Biennale; and APT2 (1996), 2nd Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane.
Wong had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2006, resulting in Asia Society Portfolio (2006)—a set of ten prints by leading Asian artists to mark both a decade of the Asian Society’s exhibition and artist commission programme, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Society’s founding.