JOHN Y.K. WONG, Sept 24 to Oct 15, 2007, Omega Gallery, Vancouver

Omega Gallery, Vancouver

Sept 24 to Oct 15, 2007

By Bettina Matzkuhn

John Wong has lived in Vancouver for 30 years, yet he feels it is only now, through his painting, that he is becoming familiar with the landscape. He is an accomplished painter of portraits, but has found landscape to be an adventure of technical, personal and metaphoric discovery. Wong’s oil canvases dwell on the cultured vistas of parks and gardens rather than the grand backdrop of ocean and mountains. His green urban spaces nestle under dramatic, cloud-patterned skies suggesting that the possibility for rest and reflection is both beneath and above us. Wong feels “art is about encountering obstacles” — either external or deeply personal. His use of colour evokes this. He depicts a pond at Van Dusen gardens immersed in shadow, the reflections black, umber and navy while a tree flames alarmingly red on the shore. In another work, the expanse of a tree-bordered field is made up of many subtle greens interrupted by the stark white of two goal posts. Wong captures a sense of interiority in what are very public places.

Represented by: Omega Gallery, Vancouver .