About
The Artist
Wong Keng Fuan was born in Penang, Malaysia, and spent his youth trying to fit into the role that was prevalent then by studying towards a degree and settling down to a safe, secure professional life.
At the age of 18, he finally gathered enough courage and rebelled, leaving school and trying earnestly to find something that would ‘fit.’
He would spend the next 10 years on a long voyage around himself, encountering various disciplines along the way that he hoped would help relieve the tensions that were building up within. Deeply influenced by Jungian philosophy and the mystic aspects of Christianity, Sufism, and Buddhism, he sought a way of expression that would do justice to his artistic and philosophic tendencies.
He finally found it in glass, which necessitated a long and sometimes arduous voyage into the complex technicalities of the material. This voyage was made no easier by the fact that there were no sources of information he could draw on where he lived.
He first mastered stained glass and then fused glass, taking the form of bowls, wall ‘hangings’, and sculptures. Because the design in stained glass is primarily governed and defined by the lead lines, which defers to a highly mechanistic approach, he turned to fused glass as his primary mode of expression, which allows for greater spontaneity.
He walks with a very sure footing on the line that balances fine art and craft, but in the final analysis, it is his utter indifference to both these concepts that makes his work considered ‘mastery’. It defies being labeled and baffles the critics who are in a quandary about how to categorize it.
His work has been accepted by leading glass art exhibitions, including the Glaskunstbeurs Leerdam in Holland (2001) and the AusGlas International Conference in Australia (2002). Private commissions include residences, banks, corporations, hotels, and more.
At the age of 18, he finally gathered enough courage and rebelled, leaving school and trying earnestly to find something that would ‘fit.’
He would spend the next 10 years on a long voyage around himself, encountering various disciplines along the way that he hoped would help relieve the tensions that were building up within. Deeply influenced by Jungian philosophy and the mystic aspects of Christianity, Sufism, and Buddhism, he sought a way of expression that would do justice to his artistic and philosophic tendencies.
He finally found it in glass, which necessitated a long and sometimes arduous voyage into the complex technicalities of the material. This voyage was made no easier by the fact that there were no sources of information he could draw on where he lived.
He first mastered stained glass and then fused glass, taking the form of bowls, wall ‘hangings’, and sculptures. Because the design in stained glass is primarily governed and defined by the lead lines, which defers to a highly mechanistic approach, he turned to fused glass as his primary mode of expression, which allows for greater spontaneity.
He walks with a very sure footing on the line that balances fine art and craft, but in the final analysis, it is his utter indifference to both these concepts that makes his work considered ‘mastery’. It defies being labeled and baffles the critics who are in a quandary about how to categorize it.
His work has been accepted by leading glass art exhibitions, including the Glaskunstbeurs Leerdam in Holland (2001) and the AusGlas International Conference in Australia (2002). Private commissions include residences, banks, corporations, hotels, and more.
The Agent
Joseph Miles was adopted by the Wong family in his youth. He has since traveled around the globe, establishing Malaysia as his second home.
His passion for his Uncle Fuan’s work led him to import multiple pieces. As a representative of Galeri Fuan Wong, he has overseen projects of varying scales and the submission of Fuan’s work in a multitude of galleries and showrooms throughout California, Washington and the Midwest.
With his newly established boutique gallery, deemed ‘The cutest little glass shop around’, The Art of Fuzion (TAOF), set in the heart of Northern California’s serene Redwood landscape, he hopes to share a bit of ‘Malaysia-Boleh’ with you.
Terima Kasih!
Stalk us;)
