Ming Wong works with cinema and popular culture to consider how one’s identity is constructed, reproduced and circulated. Through imperfect translations and reenactments of classic world cinema in which the artist plays all of the characters, Wong’s videos, photographs, installations, and performances uncover the slippages that haunt ideas of “authenticity” and “originality”.
Wong has been announced as the Artist in Residence for 2025 at the National Gallery in London, in partnership with the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea. The Residency will culminate in a solo exhibition and publication in the winter.
Recent exhibitions and performances include Rhapsody in Yellow touring at Schauspielhaus Hannover (2024), Berliner Festspiele Berlin (2023), SpielArt Festival Munich (2023), and steirischer herbst Graz (2022); Festival Extra!, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2023); Signals: How Video Transformed The World, MoMA, New York (2023); Pier Paolo Pasolini: Tutto è santo. The political body, MAXXI, Rome (2022); Wayang Spaceship, Singapore Art Museum (2022); Ridiculously Yours! Art, Awkwardness and Enthusiasm, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2022), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2023), and Neue Galerie, Graz (2023).
Ming Wong participated in Aichi Triennale (2022); Hawai’i Triennial (2022); Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2021); Asian Art Biennial, Taichung (2019); Dakar Biennale (2019); Dhaka Art Summit (2018); and Biennales in Sydney (2016 & 2010); Shanghai (2014); Lyon (2013); Liverpool (2012); Gwangju (2010); and Performa 11, New York (2010). He represented Singapore at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) with his solo exhibition Life of Imitation, which was awarded a Special Mention.
Selected Works
Ming Wong
Asta’s Studio, 2023
single channel HD-video, audio stereo
9 min
Ming Wong
Friendship First, 2023
installation featuring 2 slide projections 160 slides
dimensions variables
Ming Wong
Scenography for a Chinese Science Fiction Opera, 2015
mixed media installation featuring a handpainted theatre stage set paint on canvas, wood, steel, motors
Ming Wong
Life of Imitation (Cinema Billboards), 2009
acrylic emulsion on canvas, suite of four billboards
Ming Wong
Maksim, 2014
mixed media installation, consisting of wallpaper, rainbow sign & a single channel colour video
Ming Wong
Last day in my Kreuzberg Studio (photo by Ming Wong & Mizuki Kin), 2023
archival digital print
66,6 × 100,4 cm
Ming Wong
Lerne Deutsch mit Petra von Kant / Learn German with Petra von Kant, 2007
Single channel video installation (TV and carpet)
10:00 min
Ming Wong
In Love for the Mood, 2009
hHandpainted cinema billboard, acrylic on canvas
Ming Wong
After Chinatown, 2012
installation video
7:09 min
Ming Wong
Filem-Filem-Filem, 2009
series of 50 Polaroid photographs
