WONG Hoy Cheong was born in 1960 in George Town in Penang, Malaysia. He studied literature, education and fine arts at Brandeis University, Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in the USA. WONG is currently based in Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor, Malaysia.

WONG’s intellectual and academic background began in the field of literature rather than fine art, which serves as an explanation for his continuous fascination for scholarship and rhetoric shown in his works.

Underlying WONG’s playfulness is a serious inquiry into Asian and world history, society and politics as seen through the lens of Malaysia’s colonial and post-colonial experience. His has sought to disturb our sense of security, reminding us of the slipperiness that lies between fact and fiction, past and present, and the perpetual reinvention of our own histories.

WONG is an artist unrestricted by style or medium, his diverse education background led to his inter-disciplinary works, involving areas such as drawing, installation, photography, theater/performance and video; and has explored the interrelationship of history, politics, culture and ethnicity.

WONG was awarded by The Rockefeller Foundation with the Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows in 2011. In 2000, Newsweek (International) named him as one of the 10 trailblazers of Asia under the title “Mavericks & Rebels”. In 1999, Asiaweek named him as one of the10 art and culture “Leaders of the Next Millennium”. Deutsche Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany collects his work and has a floor named after him. Cornell University even has a scholarship - “H. C. Wong Scholarship” – named after him for his work as “Outstanding Educator.”

EDUCATION

• 1986 Master of Fine Arts, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA
• 1984 Master in Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
• 1982 Bachelor of Arts (Magna cum Laude with Honors), Brandeis University, Waltham, USA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

2010
• “Days of Our Lives: Wong Hoy Cheong Selected Works 1998-2010”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan

2008
• “Wong Hoy Cheong 2002-2007”, NUS Museum & Gallery, Singapore

2006
• “Bound for Glory”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2004
• “Selected Works 1984-2004”, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• “Re:Looking”, Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, Germany
• “slight shifts”, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK

2003
• “fact-fiction”, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria
• “Selected Works 1994-2002”, Djanogaly Gallery, Nottingham; Organisation for Visual Arts, London, UK

2002
• “Selected Works 1994-2002”, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Organisation for Visual Arts, London, UK
• “Selected Works 1994-2002”, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool / Organisation for Visual Arts, London, UK
• “Whose text?”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1999
• “Seeds of Change”, Habitat, London, UK

1996
• “Of Migrants and Rubber Trees: Drawings and Installations”, Creative Centre, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

2018
• “21st Biennial of Sydney (forthcoming)”, Sydney, Australia

2017
• “SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now”, National Art Center / Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
• “4th Folkestone Triennial”, Folkestone, UK

2016
• “Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies”, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore

2015
• 3rd Ural Biennale”, The Iset Hotel, Ekaterinburg, Russia

2014
• “Go-Betweens :The World Seen through Children”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
• “Mapping Asia”, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, China
• “The Other and Me”, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

2013
• “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back—Us and Institution, Us as Institution”, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
• “No Country, Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia”, Guggenheim Museum, New York , USA
• “MicroCities”, inToAsia: Time-based Art Festival 2013”, Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA

2012
• “Traces”, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand
• “Double Game: The ambiguity of the photographic image”, La Galleria di Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy

2011
• “The Power of Doubt”, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangdong, China
• “TV Commune”, Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, South Korea
• “Honky Tonk”, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK
• “PhotoEspaña 2011: International Photography and Visual Arts Festival”, Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid, Spain
• “Negotiating Home, History and Nation”, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
• “Where is my place?”, La Galleria di Piazza San Marco, San Marco, Venice, Italy
• “Strictly Global”, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt, Germany
• “Roving Eye”, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway

2010
• “Culture(S) of Copy”, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong / Edith Russ Site for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
• “Unreal Asia”, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland

2009
• “Code Sharing”, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
• “55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen: Unreal Asia”, Lichtburg Filmpalast, Oberhausen, Germany
• “Magnetic Power”, Coreana Museum of Art & other galleries, Seoul, Korea
• 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• 10th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France
• “Non Everyday: Hidden Force Fields”, Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan

2008
• “Orienting Istanbul”, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Taipei Biennial 2008, Museum of Fine Arts & other venues, Taipei, Taiwan
• “Coffee, Cigarettes and Pad Thai: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia”, ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
• “The Independence Project”, Gertrude Contemporary Space, Melbourne, Australia / Petronas Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2007
• 10th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
• “Koloniale Träume - Autonome Zonen”, Graz, Austria

2006
• “Naked Life”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
• “Asian Contemporary Art in Print”, Asia Society Gallery, New York City / Tyler Print Institute, Singapore

2005
• Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art , Guangzhou, China
• “Colonialism without Colonies?”, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
• “Contact”, Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, France
• “Strategy”, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

2004
• “Ethnic Marketing”, Center for Contemporary Art, Geneva, Switzerland
• “Minority Report”, Aarhus Art Building, Aarhus, Denmark
• Art Forum, Berlin, Germany
• 3rd Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK
• “Asian Traffic”, Gallery 4A, Sydney, Australia
• “SHAKE”, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, Austria / Villa Arson, Nice, France

2003
• “Cam-taten”, Kunstraum, Linz, Austria
• “Dreams and Conflicts (Z.O.U. and Utopia Station)”, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
• “handlungsanweisungen - instructions for actions”, Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria

2002
• “The Spice Route”, ifa Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
• “Identities: Who We Are”, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• “Refuge”, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway
• “Asian Party Global Game (curated project)”, ARCO, Madrid, Spain

2001
• “ARS 01”, KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
• “Flashpoint”, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Sungai Buloh, Malaysia
• “Headlights”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2000
• “Overtag”, BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden
• “Lines of Descent”, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (touring exhibtion)
• “La Ville, Le Jardin, La Memoire”, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
• “Poisonous Targets (2-persons show)”, Gallery 4A, Sydney, Australia
• “Mutations / Urban Rumours”, Fri-Art Contemporary Art Centre, Fribourg, Switzerland
• “Invisible Boundary”, Utsonomiya Museum of Art, Utsonomiya, Japan
• 3rd Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju, Korea

1999
• “Time for Tea”, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• “babel”, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
• “Sogni / Dreams”, Fondazine Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Per L’latre, Torino; 48th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
• “Cities on the Move 5”, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
• 1st Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• “Cities on the Move 4”, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
• “Intervention”, Museum-in-Progress, Vienna, Austria

1998
• “Siapa? Apa? Kenapa?”, Artis Pro Activ, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• “Schools: Textual Works”, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• “Cities on The Move 2”, CapcMusee d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France
• “Rupa Malaysia”, Brunei Gallery, London, UK / National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1997
• “Cities on The Move”, The Secession, Vienna, Austria
• “Art in Southeast Asia: Glimpses into the Future”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (touring exhibition)

1996
• “Imagining the Contemporary Body: Malaysia, Philippines & Singapore”, Petronas Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

1995
• “Visions of Happiness: 10 Contemporary Asian Artists”, Japan Foundation Forum Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

• Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• ArtNow International, San Francisco, USA
• Canberra Institute of Art, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
• Deutsche Bank Collection, Germany
• Fondazione Cassa Di Risparmio Di Modena, Modena, Italy
• KLM, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
• National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• National Bank, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
• Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA