Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1986 Ipoh, Malaysia

Biography

Artist Caroline Wong was born in Ipoh, Malaysia in 1986. She is Malaysian-Chinese and grew up in London and entered the art scene only in her 30s. Between 2016 and 2018, she studied for a Diploma in Contemporary Portraiture at the Art Academy in London where she graduated with distinction. She subsequently studied for a Masters in Fine Arts between 2019 and 2021 at the City and Guilds of London Art School, again graduating with distinction.

Wong’s oeuvre primarily consists of paintings and portraits in a range of media. Her art practice challenges the limited portrayals of East Asian women by turning orthodox representations on their head. Her work explores the theme of female desire, using excess and sensuality to challenge ideas of restraint and conventions. She blends drawing and painting with a bold use of pastel to create scenes of female empowerment and to highlight life’s ephemerality. Initially, Wong focused on conventional portraiture, but her artistic journey has evolved towards more dynamic and expressive mark-making. This shift is driven by her love for particular motifs: cats, empowered women, food, fun and indulgence. She draws a parallel between creating art and eating, both acts that immerse her in moments of pleasure, cutting her off from the outside world. Her resulting images are vivid, sensuous portals brimming with joy and indulgence. The vibrantly coloured spaces in which she positions her sitters give the impressions of intense heat, mirroring the liveliness and chaotic atmosphere of Southeast Asia. Moriavittoria Pirera has described Wong's practice as follows: ‘Through the representation of greedy and appetising Dionysian banquets, where order and form are abolished in favour of chaos and excess, the artist investigates without judgement the complex relationships between femininity and food, proposing nourishment as an impulse capable of filling both a physical and emotional void,’ (Pirera, 2023). Cats are also a frequent motif in her paintings. ‘The cat was originally a nostalgic symbol in my art,’ Wong has said in an interview, ‘I wanted to capture the charm and eccentricity of the various cats I’d kept since childhood and my special bond with them. Then it became a broader symbol of freedom and independence, an extension of the female characters in my works who live for their own pleasure or the ‘sensations of life’ […]’ (Wong quoted in Lichterwaldt, 2024). Wong has also taken particular inspiration from the works of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, and the freedom of her brushwork brings to mind German Expressionism, though her visual language was developed both in Europe and Asia.

Wong has taken part in several solo and group exhibitions, primarily in England, Germany and the USA. Her 2022 solo show Cats and Girls at Soy Capitán in Berlin consisted of pastel drawings and images of women and cats in intimate spaces, often eating or hedonistically lounging. In 2024, she presented an online exhibition Hungry Women at London's Richard Saltoun gallery. Wong’s paintings for this iteration portrayed Asian women indulging in ravenous consumption of food and expressing joyful indulgence. By creating 120 works, she aimed to reflect excess and to challenge traditional depictions of composed and restrained femininity, particularly subverting the meirenhuagenre (meaning ‘images of beautiful women,’ a traditional East Asian art form depicting graceful women in idealised spaces). Wong’s vivid, lively portraits of unruly and funny women nonetheless subtly engage with themes of desire, repression, and capitalist visual culture. The artist invites viewers to interpret these themes, highlighting the fine line between self-expression and the pitfalls of exaggerated, if not pathological, self-representation. Wong has also participated in several group exhibitions, including London’s Drawing Biennale, auctions at the Whitechapel Gallery, and shows at the Gillian Jason Gallery in London.

Caroline Wong has received several important awards throughout her career. In 2018, she won both The Society of Women Artists Derwent Art Prize and the Liberty Specialty Markets Art Prize. She was then honoured with the Drawing Room Biennial Bursary Award in 2021. In 2023, she was selected for the Castello San Basilio residency in Pisticci, Italy. That same year she was also shortlisted for both the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize and the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award. Caroline Wong lives and works in London. Her artworks are not currently part of any public collection in the UK.

Related books

Kate Macfarlane, Jacqui McIntosh, Mary Doyle and Huma Kabakci, Drawn Out, exh. cat. (London: Drawing Room, 2021)

Related organisations

The Art Academy (student )
City and Guilds of London Art School (student )

Selected exhibitions

Hungry Women (solo exhibition), Richard Saltoun Gallery (online), London (2024)
Picnics and Parties (solo exhibition), Gallery Belenius, Stockholm (2024)
Drawing Biennial 2024 (group show), Drawing Room, London (2024)
Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Auction 2024 (group show), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2024)
Eternal Summer (solo exhibition), Castello di San Basilio, Pisticci (2023)
Cats and Girls (solo exhibition), Soy Capitán, Berlin (2022)
Artificial Paradises (solo exhibition), Soho Revue, London (2022)
Face to Face (group show), Gillian Jason Gallery, London (2022)
ING Discerning Eye (group show), Mall Galleries, London (2021)
MA Show (group show), City and Guilds of London Art School, London (2021)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Caroline Wong]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Caroline Wong artist