Karla Wong (Mexican, b. 1974). The Catrina Comes to Chicago (La catrina llega Chicago), 2026.

CHICAGO (Grace Ebert, September 2026) — Although Karla Wong has always been passionate about drawing, it was her degree in law that ultimately spurred her current practice. The Mexican artist spent her adolescent and early adult years in Oaxaca, where she attended university and eventually became a forensic and witness sketch artist for the local justice department. Rendering a figure’s likeness based solely on a description is a deeply imaginative process and one that continues to inform the artist’s practice today.

In Journeys of Being on view now at Chicago’s Intuit Art Museum, Wong presents a vibrant body of work that entwines her Oaxacan roots with her Chinese heritage and experiences as a trans woman living between the U.S. and Mexico. Included are vibrant portraits with skeletal figures evocative of Day of the Dead, the folk art sculptures known as alebrijes, and a desert landscape pocked with agave. Victorian garb and faces adorned with makeup gesture toward the performance of gender, too, and the ways we signify beauty and self-expression.

About Intuit

Intuit champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Intuit presents the work of self-taught artists—also known as outsider art. These artists typically work outside the mainstream and may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to a traditional path of art making. By presenting a diversity of artistic voices, Intuit builds a bridge from art to audiences.