Siyan Wong, Big Kitchen, 2026, oil on linen, 18” x 24”
Siyan Wong, Mother Warriors
March 12 – April 11, 2026
Opening Reception: March 12, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Siyan Wong’s paintings depict immigrant Chinese women working in garment factories, restaurants, homecare, and street vendors. Inspired by the immigrant dreams of a better life and the reality of survival in a dehumanizing economy, Wong notes that her paintings, “make the lives of Chinese women, and the working poor, visible while directing the viewers’ gaze to their body and soul as they toil.” A self-taught artist, Wong’s outsider painting style, replete with decorative patterning, shallow pictorial space and panning compositions, offer a closely observed, non-filtered, cinematic view of the unrelenting struggles, yet earnest fortitude of her subjects.
Demonstrating an aptitude for art making at an early age, Ms. Wong briefly attended LaGuardia High School of Music and Art—which ultimately constituted her sole formal art training. From an immigrant working-class family striving for a better life, Ms. Wong was persuaded to set her sights on a professional career. She transferred to Stuyvesant High School, studied history and economics in college, and subsequently completed a law degree. Not losing sight of her roots, she obtained employment as a workers' rights lawyer. “I never stopped making art…I just began teaching myself by studying the works of painters I admired. I loved Paul Cezanne’s colors, the confidence of Alice Neel’s lines, and the powerful stories Jacob Lawrence told with simplified figures and forms.”
She adds, “I soon discovered Isidre Nonell and was taken by his passionate portrayal of the socially ostracized. As a workers' rights lawyer, I was in daily contact with everyday working people and conversations about power, money and the human spirit became central to my work. Like Nonell, I needed to paint those that are ‘invisible’.”
In 2025, Ms. Wong was able to retire from her lawyer post, focus full-time on painting and work towards realizing her exhibition vision. Mother Warriors will include her recent paintings and works by students and local community artists whose works also explore the immigrant experience. By inviting students to participate in her exhibition, Wong hopes to ignite a wider communal reflection on the joys and challenges of being an immigrant in America with artworks that she adds, “offer a shared vision and speak where words cannot.”
Siyan Wong’s projects are fiscally sponsored by NYFA, and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and in part with funds from Creative Engagement, a regrant program supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and administered by LMCC. Her work is also supported by the Asian Women Giving Circle (AWGC).