Karla Wong

Karla Wong’s paintings are a love letter to her Mexican culture. They are interwoven with her life experiences as a trans woman, a person of Mexican and Chinese heritage, and of the journeys between her homes in the United States and Oaxaca.  

Wong was born in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1974, and graduated from the Benito Juárez de Oaxaca University of Law. This, and a lifelong passion for drawing, led her to work as a forensic and witness sketch artist for the general prosecution and justice department, drawing facial reconstructions and composites for 10 years. During this time, Wong developed a more serious art practice and connected to artistic communities in both Chicago and Oaxaca, eventually trading in her pencils for oil paints. She eventually settled in the Chicago area and continues to travel between her native and adopted countries. 

Traditional Oaxacan clothing and landscapes integrated with subtle odes to Chicago landmarks are often included in Wong’s paintings. Symbolic elements are hidden throughout each painting: balloons representing the unborn, birds for male genitalia, and apples and pears for forbidden fruit. Her vivid, dreamlike compositions, which evoke Victorian and Surrealist styles, are interlaced with themes of life and death, self discovery, and gender identity, and frequent portal archway motifs lead to mysterious places. Wong’s work portrays the beauty and harsh realities of being true to oneself.