Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Cantonese Cowboy
JAN WOOLF is sucked into a unique vision of the urban US from the perspective of immigrant and queer communities
Cell Door Slot, 1986, Acrylic on canvas; Prison Bunk Beds, ca. 1988—91 Acrylic on canvas [Courtesy of the Martin Wong Foundation]

Martin Wong, Malicious Mischief
Camden Arts Centre

MARTIN WONG (1946–1999) is a free spirit, and Malicious Mischief is peculiar in the good sense; peculiar to something, rather than weird. What he is peculiar to is the queer and immigrant scenes of west and east coast America, with a sort of controlled playfulness. And boy could he paint. 

Some of the figures can seem like Robert Crumb cartoons, and then you see a foreshortened body like one of Michelangelo’s. There’s homage to Peter Blake’s detritus in shop windows. Some clean line painting, and then a scumble of oil paint as delicious as Rembrandt or Bacon. 

But Wong is his own man and paints human life struggling against decay in a money-obsessed America. His textured walls, brickwork and gates are full of the fading hope of people who might have seen America as a second chance, rather than an opportunity for money making. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
quad
Theatre review / 27 June 2025
27 June 2025

JAN WOOLF finds out where she came from and where she’s going amid Pete Townshend’s tribute to 1970s youth culture

PP
Exhibition review / 6 June 2025
6 June 2025

JAN WOOLF applauds the necessarily subversive character of the Palestinian poster in Britain

Tower of Babel, 1982
Culture / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF
Poetry review / 19 November 2024
19 November 2024
JAN WOOLF relishes a book of poetry that deploys the energy of political struggle, rooted in post-war working class history and culture
Similar stories
Tower of Babel, 1982
Culture / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF
Daniel Lind-Ramos, Ensamblajes, Nottingham Contemporary
Exhibition review / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
(L) Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne 1967; (R) Self-Portra
Exhibition review / 16 January 2025
16 January 2025
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Poetry review / 19 November 2024
19 November 2024
JAN WOOLF relishes a book of poetry that deploys the energy of political struggle, rooted in post-war working class history and culture