Above Ground: Graffiti Art from the Martin Wong Collection
Museum of the City of New York
New York

A collection is never just an archive—it reflects taste, allegiance, and, in Martin Wong’s case, kinship. “Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection” at the Museum of the City of New York pulsed with intimacy, revealing the deep connections between Wong and the artists whose works he championed. Marking 30 years since Wong’s 1994 donation of his graffiti-based art collection to the museum, the exhibition illuminated how mutual recognition between outsiders—a queer Asian American painter and predominantly Black and Latino graffiti artists—created a network that preserved a vital chapter of American art history.

After growing up in San Francisco, Wong arrived in New York in 1978 and immersed himself in the Lower East Side’s raw, vibrant artistic scene. Self-identifying as “Chino-Latino,” he was affectionately known as “Chino Malo” (bad Chinese man) by his Nuyorican peers—a nickname signaling belonging rather than otherness. This cross-cultural solidarity manifested tangibly: while working at the art supply store Pearl Paint, Wong offered discounts to graffiti writer friends and eventually became their devoted collector and patron, recognizing their formal rigor when the art world dismissed them as vandals.