Garden with Cosmic Vase

Matthew Wong, a Canadian artist of Chinese heritage, only took up painting in the last few years of his short life. Although he studied photography at the School of Creative Media in Hong Kong, he had no formal training as a painter. He developed his technique and singular approach through personal exchanges with artists and poets with whom he developed friendships through social media. He became known for vividly colored oils on canvas and gouaches on paper that often featured a solitary figure or object set within an imagined interior or landscape. Garden with Cosmic Vase is from a small series of ink on paper paintings, of which it is the largest example. The painting references Chinese landscape painting, which the artist studied at first hand in museums in Hong Kong, Toronto, and New York.

A landscape depicting a waterfall, leaf, and rocks in the foreground with mountains and clouds in the distance decorates the surface of an irregularly shaped vase. The vase is placed within the receding landscape of a garden, with large black trees in the distance.