Description

"Artist Martin Wong was a magnetic figure in 1980s downtown New York: Chinese-American, openly gay, generous, and wildly creative. This documentary tells the story of the crucial role he played in graffiti art’s emergence from the underground by investigating a hidden painting on the back of one of his major works. Weaving archival footage with new interviews with Wong’s close friends, collaborators, conservators, and historians, this film is also a portrait of the city he loved at a pivotal moment when creative liberation, gentrification, new subcultures, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic were colliding.

Wong was an extraordinary figure who is only now gaining worldwide recognition for his work, which, as MoMA curator Michelle Kuo says, is “in the same constellation as Keith Haring’s or Jean-Michel Basquiat’s: art that was often both for and about public space, the street.” His tragic death at just 53 from AIDS related illness cut his career short at its creative peak. In this film, graffiti artist Aaron “Sharp” Goodstone and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn (WILD STYLE) share personal memories of Wong and speak about the impact of his friendship and art. “His work was an aspect of New York archival history,” Sharp explains, “because some of those buildings are gone. So it’s like a portrait of the city that doesn’t exist.”"Cast/Crew

Director: Sarah Cowan

Featuring: Aaron "Sharp" Goodstone, Charlie Ahearn, Magdalena Solano, Anny Aviram, Michelle Kuo

ScreeningS