Biography
Adrian Wong Shue
December 30, 1952 – December 12, 2023
Adrian Antonio Wong Shue was born on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in 1952. Family and some friends knew Wong Shue as "Dennis," a nickname earned in childhood as a reflection of his mischievous antics. During the 1960s, the artist studied painting and drawing at Kingston College. Vocational training during Wong Shue's secondary school years included a period of study with a private tutor who taught a traditional Chinese drawing technique with the use of calligraphy brushes and charcoal powder.
For much of the 1970s, while living in Jamaica, the artist worked primarily on drawings and produced paintings on paper using a combination of watercolor and ink. For Wong Shue, the life of the artist was two-fold. He described his personal belief system saying, “The artist creates the art, and the art creates the artist.” This philosophy enabled him to approach the creation of his artwork with complete freedom from the conventional restraints which too often restrict an artist. It resulted in a style of painting combining several mediums at once to achieve a look that is paradoxically both timeless and yet contemporary.
In the fall of 1980, Wong Shue moved to California and set up his studio in Los Angeles. Between 1981 and 1985, he joined various artist organizations and immersed himself in the activities of this newly found community of artists. Wong Shue's contact and close interactions with foreign artists, particularly Chinese expatriates, soon had a profound and significant influence on the development of his painting style. By 1987, the artist's paintings had advanced with more than enough appeal to land him a contract with a publisher and art dealer.
At the Los Angeles Contemporary Artists Association, which was an organization founded by Peggy Guggenheim to benefit beginning working artists, Wong Shue made connections and participated in his first group exhibitions showing his early works. During his membership at the Bunker Hills Art League in Los Angeles, from 1981 – 1982, the artist observed a painting demonstration by Ting Shao Kuang, one of the founding members of the Yunnan School. For the rest of the 1980s, he explored the non-traditional techniques that the artists of "The Yunnan Movement" newly introduced to the western world. Wong Shue was one of four painters selected to appear on NBC Television to display their work and participate in an interview.