Pancouver recently highlighted the Richmond Art Gallery’s Restless by Nature: Mary Sui Yee Wong, 1990s to the present exhibition. But the Concordia University professor isn’t the only artist named Wong whose work is on display at the gallery from April 12 to June 8. The Great Wall: #6 by master printmaker Anna Chek Ying Wong is also featured.
“The presentation of this artwork in the Gallery’s Art Lounge is part of Collection Close-up, an initiative wherein we highlight a work from the Collection, which has a formal or thematic link to the featured exhibition,” curatorial assistant Maria Filipina Palad states on the gallery’s website. “The Great Wall: #6 is one of 8 works by Wong in the Permanent Collection.”
Like featured artist Mary Sui Yee Wong, Anna Wong (1930-2013) was raised in Vancouver. Moreover, neither artist immersed herself in the commercial art scene.
Anna Wong was one of 10 siblings in a prominent Chinese Canadian family that owned Modernize Tailors in Chinatown. She travelled to Hong Kong to study Chinese painting in 1957 and 1958. After returning to Canada, she enrolled at the Vancouver School of Art, which later became Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
In the 1980s, Anna Wong visited the People’s Republic of China just as it was opening up to the West. That led to her Great Wall series, including the one one display at the Richmond Art Gallery.
“Here, Wong employs a sophisticated set of techniques, including serigraphy, chine collé, and printing of calligraphy over collaged and hand-coloured surfaces,” the gallery states on its website.
Maurice Wong posted this video on YouTube about his sister Anna Wong.
Event details
The Richmond Art Gallery is presenting Collection Close-up: The Great Wall: #6 by Anna Wong from April 12 to June 8. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. Also find Pancouver on Instagram @PancouverMedia. Follow Charlie Smith on Bluesky @charliesmithvcr.bsky.social.
