Installation view of Karla Wong: Journeys of Being at Intuit Art Museum (photo Natalie Jenkins/Hyperallergic)
CHICAGO (Natalie Jenkins, September 2026) — Surreal, vibrant, and complex, Karla Wong’s paintings reveal something new in every second spent in their company. Wong uses her practice to explore the many facets of her lived experience, from her Mexican and Chinese heritage to her gender expression, yielding work that is rich in symbolism. In “Arriving to the Land of the Mezcal” (2026), the pink and blue stripes wrapping a six-legged zebra-human represent the trans flag, while the creature’s place in a landscape of agave plants gestures towards the Oaxacan origins of mezcal.
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.
