In the early 2000s, Tobias Wong (1974–2010) took the design world by storm. Born and raised in Vancouver, Wong was a brilliant and prolific artist whose career was all too short. Defying easy categorization, his work was wide ranging, pushing and dissolving disciplinary boundaries between conceptual art, performance and product design. Wong’s international career took off and developed in New York City, where he resided until his untimely death in 2010.
Wong’s work was irreverent, witty and thought provoking. He edited pieces by famous designers, appropriated brand imagery and tweaked everyday objects to give them new status and meaning. His work questioned notions of authorship, originality and the value we assign to objects in our lives.
All We Want Is More: The Tobias Wong Project is an invitation to revisit Wong’s artistic contribution with fresh eyes. Recent social, environmental and technological events have transformed the way we see the world and inevitably the way we see Tobias Wong’s work. The title of the exhibition refers not only to his interest in conspicuous consumption but also to what we, the exhibition team, felt as we worked on this project: the more we delved into Wong’s work, the more we wanted to know about him. We know you’ll want more too!
This exhibition presents over 70 works by Tobias Wong, the majority from the Wong Estate collection. The curatorial program, which involved conducting interviews with design collaborators around world, retraces Wong’s artistic trajectory and introduces several lesser-known pieces to draw a rich portrait of the artist. Wong was a creative force whose ideas had global reach and continue to inspire.
Credit: Dean Kaufman
Exhibition Details
All We Want is More: The Tobis Wong Project
November 17, 2022 – July 23, 2023
Museum of Vancouver
1100 Chestnut Street
Vancouver, BC
Event Details
All We Want is More: The Tobis Wong Project Catalogue Launch
March 30, 2023 | 6:30–8:00pm
Museum of Vancouver
1100 Chestnut Street
Vancouver, BC