Paul Wong, Toronto Reel Asian Fire Horse Award 2024. Photo: Mike Tijoe
The Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory (AHVA) at the University of British Columbia is pleased to announce Paul Wong as the Artist in Residence for September 2024 to April 2025. During his residency at UBC, Wong will be provided a studio in the Audain Art Centre and conduct studio and class visits with students. A public artist’s talk will be held on October 2, 2024, which will be introduced by Michael Dang, a PhD student in Art History, a Critical and Curatorial Studies alumnus, and recent curator of Unit Bruises: Theodor Wan and Paul Wong at Richmond Art Gallery.
Paul Wong’s career spans over five decades in visual and media art. Wong has continuously pushed the boundaries of storytelling, working outside mainstream conventions making art for site-specific spaces and screens of all sizes. He is an award-winning artist, curator, and founder of several artist-run groups including The Mainstreeters (1972), VIVO Media Art Centre (1973), and On The Cutting Edge Productions (1986), and he has organized events, festivals, conferences, and public interventions since the 1970s.
He recently completed a year-long residency 身在唐人街/OCCUPYING CHINATOWN. Inspired by hundreds of letters and familial artefacts of his late mother, Suk Fong Wong, Paul Wong created intimate exhibitions, public art pieces, artist talks, events, workshops, and the website: www.occupyingchinatown.com.
Wong is the artistic director and curator of On Main Gallery (On The Cutting Edge Productions Society) and is the co-curator of The Prop House: A Collection of Over One Million Objects at Griffin Art Projects. He is currently curating the photography retrospective Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama for the Vancouver Art Gallery opening in March 2026.
Wong has been the recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art (2005), the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts (2016), an honorary doctorate from Emily Car University of Art and Design, and most recently, the Toronto Reel Asian Fire Horse Award (2024).
“I am a self-taught artist who completed high school in Vancouver. This is an exciting opportunity to engage with students and faculty and to explore the resources and talents in the department and beyond. I am going in with no expectations; I see this residency as a fantastic site-specific opportunity to absorb and expand into further interdisciplinary experimentations.”
The Artist in Residence Program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory is made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor. Past AHVA Artists in Residence have been Beau Dick, Stan Douglas, Germaine Koh, Marianne Nicolson, and Diamond Point.
父字 / Father’s Words, August 24, 1964
Paul Wong, 2019
50.5″ x 67.5″
digital print on bamboo paper, edition of 2
父字 / Father’s Words, December 29, 1971
Paul Wong, 2019
50.5″ x 67.5″
digital print on bamboo paper, edition of 2
父字 / Father’s Words, June 22, 1973
Paul Wong, 2019
50.5″ x 67.5″
digital print on bamboo paper, edition of 2
