Artist Talk: Karla Wong

About Karla Wong

Karla Wong’s work is a love letter to her Mexican culture, drawing on her life experiences, her identity as a trans woman and the landscape of her dreams. Born in Veracruz in 1974 to parents from Oaxaca, Wong immigrated to the Chicago area in 2016. She maintains a strong connection to Mexico, continuously traversing between her native and adopted countries.

Although she graduated from the Benito Juarez De Oaxaca University of Law, a lifelong interest in drawing led her to work as a forensic and witness sketch artist for the general prosecution and justice department, drawing facial reconstructions and composites. Wong’s interest-turned-passion led her to develop a more serious art practice, trading in her pencils for oil paints. Her artwork is a vivid blend of traditional Oaxacan elements with Victorian style influences; Surrealist in nature, the work explores themes of life and death, gender identity, self-discovery, and dream-like portal archways leading to mysterious places.

Registration is encouraged.

Karla Wong (Mexican, b. 1974). The Secret (El secreto), 2026. Oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in. Collection of the artist

Access Notes

Intuit Art Museum is accessible through the museum's ramp entrance on Milwaukee Ave. Please contact intuit@art.org with questions related to accessibility.

About Intuit Art Museum

Intuit Art Museum champions the diverse voices of self-taught art, welcoming both new and familiar audiences. Located in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Intuit is a premier museum of self-taught art—also known as outsider art. The Museum collects and exhibits work by artists who typically work outside the mainstream and have developed a sustained artistic practice. Some artists may have faced societal, economic or geographic barriers to pursuing extensive training in the arts. The museum’s mission is grounded in the ethos that the instinct to create is universal and the arts must embrace, represent and be accessible to all. Learn more at www.art.org.

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