Hong Kong artist Wong Ping’s darkly humorous animated videos ‘talk about things which are kind of taboo but experienced by people in their daily life’
- Emerging artist Wong Ping’s distinctive low-grade aesthetic and taboo subject matter has captured the interest of cultural institutions the world over
- He started making animations as a hobby to distract him from his monotonous day job doing post-production work in the television industry
This summer, Hong Kong artist Wong Ping should have been in New York for the opening of his solo exhibition at New Museum, which has been postponed to March next year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The delay, however, is not likely to affect the 36-year-old’s rising international trajectory.
Wong is known primarily for his vivid animated films that convey dark undertones; Jungle of Desire (2015), for example, features an impotent husband hiding in a wardrobe secretly watching his prostitute wife have sex with a police officer.
He got his big break in 2018 in London when he won the Camden Art Centre’s inaugural emerging artist prize in conjunction with the Frieze Art Fair. The prize allowed him the opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the centre, which he did in 2019 with “Heart Digger”. Two more solo shows followed that year: “Golden Shower” at Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland, and “The Modern Way to Shower” at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami in the United States.
Most recently, he wrapped up “5 Tips for Politely Rejecting a Booty Call from Your Neighbour’s Dog” at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, in the US state of Georgia, in July.
But what is it about Wong’s style that has captured the interest of cultural institutions the world over?
