Art Spiel Picks: Philly Exhibitions in November 2024
November 25, 2024
By Claire Haik
Wong’s meticulous patterns are free-flowing, churning, and spiraling like ink in a glass of water. She cuts and layers tangled images from drawing and painting mediums to create twisting designs and tight-knit patterns. The integration of so many mediums is exciting, but it is the interplay of different rendering styles that draws me in. Meticulous line drawings, loosely painted turning forms, and watery blooms of paint are collaged together and integrated into one unified, undulating surface.
She begins these constructions by drawing raw images of crime scenes and physical violence and then layers her colorful and ephemeral images on top of them. Wong explains, “I utilize this layering as a way of nature reclaiming and growing over the pain, producing a beautiful scar.”
There is a meditative, airy quality to all of her work. At the far end of the gallery, a room-sized installation fills the space, casting twirling shadows on the wall. Wong suspends colorful pieces of cut acrylic from the ceiling so that they appear to float and gather into a long serpentine form. In the side gallery, mesmerizing drawings made of candle smoke, pencil, and gouache speak of the spirit, breath, and femininity. Incantations is a captivating show with an underlying message of hope.