Ivan Wong's MONSTER Unveiled on Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy

The New York- and Los Angeles-based American fine art studio DANIELLE is pleased to announce the unveiling of artist Ivan Wong's new outdoor art installation entitled Monster, on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Monster will be on view indefinitely, starting today, October 30, 2017.

Conceived for 1207 Ocean Avenue in Mantoloking, New Jersey, the artwork is an enamel and vinyl billboard (48" x 96"), standing next to a busy throughway in a particularly vulnerable location where the ocean breached the shore during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Painted entirely on the now empty ocean-front site, the artwork recreates the surrounding environment and captures the luminescent and intersecting forces of sky and ocean, overlaid with the word "monster" in Japanese, emerging on the shore like Godzilla.

Monster embodies the collision of government and nature and is Wong's impassioned response to increasing threats of natural and human-made disasters. Addressing the idea of what is known versus what is not known - or the unknown as it manifests itself and becomes known - the artwork alludes to current fears and ignorance, often resulting from abuses of power and its ramifications. This idea is reflected in the painting, which is in a constant state of transformation, as it responds to the changing natural environment of light, motion and sound at night and day. The characters of the word "monster," made of transparent vinyl, appear and disappear as viewers move around the billboard and as light moves across it.

Monster is shaped both by Wong's experience growing up under the threat of nuclear attack during the Vietnam War and his fascination with Japanese cinema and science fiction. The Japanese typography draws parallels between the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy and the destructive worldwide pop culture icon Godzilla - the king of monsters originating from the Japanese series of tokusatsu films of the same name. First conceived as a metaphor for nuclear devastation, Godzilla has also stood for a number of natural disasters and the human condition, showing us that threats come both from outside and from within (individuals or governments). In Wong's art installation, the monster rises from the ocean to embody the fears of our times and remind us of our fragility and responsibility.

IVAN WONG was born in 1955 in San Diego, California and has been equally devoted to art and music throughout his career. He began his studies in musical theatre at the age of eight at the California Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. In 1978 he received an A.A. in painting from Grossmont College before continuing his studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. When artist and professor Howard Warshaw passed away shortly after his arrival, this determined Wong's decision to transfer to the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1981 he received his B.F.A. in painting from UCLA where he studied with David Hockney, Vito Acconci, George Herms, Laddie John Dill and Alexis Smith. While at UCLA he was the bassist in L.A.'s first homegrown ska band, The Boxboys, which is credited with establishing the L.A. ska mod revival in 1979 and 1980. In 1984 he moved to New York where he continued his painting studies at Columbia University and toured internationally as the bassist in bands Little Shining Man and Voodoo X. Wong has also been a dedicated printmaker, producing hundreds of books with renowned artists and designers of our time, including Irving Penn, Doris Bry for Georgia O'Keeffe, David LaChapelle, Albert Watson, Eiko Ishioka, Madonna, Richard Benson, Simon Doonan and Fabien Baron.

Wong's recent solo exhibitions include CHROMIUM US 101 at the Palos Verdes Art Center, California (2016) and Paul Smith Los Angeles (2016), and CHROMIUM at Brown Gallery, Los Angeles (2016). In 2017 he formed Ivan Wong's Plastic Products, a musical ensemble founded on the principles of sound that created the soundscape for ACKIA, a 14-hour-long avant-garde sound performance for which Wong serves as artistic director and narrator. ACKIA debuted at Idyllwild Arts, California to open their annual Native American Arts Festival (2017). His latest solo work is a painting installation entitled Monster on the ocean in Mantoloking, New Jersey (2017). Wong is represented by DANIELLE. He currently lives and works in New York City.

DANIELLE is an American fine art studio founded by Danielle Sweet in 2015. Based in New York and Los Angeles, DANIELLE creates and produces fine art projects with contemporary artists and luminaries, representing and developing their artistic practices and careers.

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