Anna Wong: Traveller on Two Roads
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Burnaby Art Gallery 6344 Deer Lake Ave, Burnaby, British Columbia V5G 2J3
Photo: Blaine Campbell.
Anna Wong, "China Wall I," 1981
mixed media on paper, ed. A/P, 56 cm x 77cm
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 30, 7pm
Anna Wong: Traveller on Two Roads is a retrospective of master printmaker Anna Wong (1930–2013). Wong is a significant Chinese-Canadian artist born and raised in Vancouver’s Chinatown, whose international career spanned seven decades.
Examining Wong’s life between the West Coast of Canada and New York City, as well as extensive travel throughout China, this exhibition features over 70 original artworks, including a wide range of paintings, hand-pulled prints and large-scale textile pieces.
“Whether Wong was creating work in the city or in her isolated West Coast studio, she was always working with images in stark contrast from her present surroundings: establishing an ‘elsewhere’ through tableaus of fern and maple leaves while living in Manhattan; or through scenes of the Great Wall and Mount Gongga while making art in Vancouver. These works represent two parallel journeys of the self, and in this exhibition we have attempted to accompany her on these travels,” explain co-curators Ellen van Eijnsbergen and Jennifer Cane.
In her youth, Wong worked at her family’s business, Modernize Tailors, a thriving fixture in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighborhood dating back to 1913. As a young adult, the artist studied Chinese brush painting in Hong Kong, and graduated from the Vancouver School of Art with a degree in creative printmaking. She moved to New York City at the age of thirty-six to continue her studies at the Pratt Graphics Center, where she was quickly offered a teaching position. Over twenty years at Pratt, she taught hundreds of students, returning to Vancouver each summer to teach her own ‘art school’ to a large extended group of nieces and nephews, and to spend time working on her own art in the serenity of her Quadra Island studio.Strongly influenced by her parents’ blend of Chinese and Western traditions, with a priority placed on cultural and academic education, Wong, the middle child of ten siblings, acted as the matriarch of the family while at the same time, pursued her independence and realized her dream of becoming a professional artist in New York. When Anna’s parents took a year-and-a-half journey around the world in 1951, twenty-one-year-old Anna became the appointed custodian of her younger siblings. This experience solidified her role as an adept listener and family confidant. It was also during this time that Anna developed her interest in teaching art lessons to young children.
Despite a commendable exhibition record, Wong has remained virtually unknown to Vancouver’s art community. As publication author and art historian Keith Wallace writes, this was due in part to the fact that Wong was not “preoccupied with becoming a ‘career’ artist or in working in service of financial benefit.” In the 1960s, her original prints received several international prizes, and she represented Canada in a number of international print biennials. Her work was featured at the National Art Gallery of China in Beijing in 1979.
Accompanying the exhibition is a full-colour, hardcover publication in two bilingual editions (English/French and Chinese). With essays from notable scholars Keith Wallace and ZoëChan, the catalogue reproduces over 70 of Wong’s artworks created from a lifetime of travel and cultural influence: from Vancouver’s Chinatown to New York City, and from Quadra Island to Beijing.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS Opening Reception: Thursday, August 30, 7 pm
Free, everyone welcome Join us for the opening of Anna Wong’s Traveller on Two Roads at the Burnaby Art Gallery. The evening will feature opening remarks, followed by a reception. Mingle over refreshments, learn more about the artist, and preview the special edition hardcover art book accompanying the exhibition, available in two bilingual editions: English/French and Chinese.
Curator’s Tour: Sunday, September 9, 2 pm Free, everyone welcome
Join curator Jennifer Cane on an in-depth tour of Anna Wong’s exhibition Traveller on Two Roads.
In the BAG Family Sundays: Sunday, September 16 & October 21, 1–4 pm Free drop-in, all ages welcome Come and make art! Get your minds humming with a visit to the gallery and then into the studio for family-friendly art projects. On September 16, learn all about nature prints and on October 21, explore Chinese brush painting.
Culture Days: Multilingual Tours of Anna Wong: Traveller on Two Roads Saturday, September 29, 1-4pm - Free, everyone welcome
Join our knowledgeable guides for French, Mandarin, Cantonese and English tours of Anna Wong: Traveller on Two Roads. For tour registration and specific times, please call 604-297-4422.
Panel Discussion: The Art and Life of Anna Wong Sunday, September 30, 2pm - Free, everyone welcome Join us for a moderated panel, including writers Zoë Chan, Keith Wallace and independent curator Steven Tong with Director/Curator Ellen van Eijnsbergen, focusing on the life and artistic practice of Anna Wong.