For Immediate Release					  October 16, 1995

	
Florence Oy Wong Discusses Life as Chinese-American Artist in LU Colloquium
 
 
	APPLETON, WIS.   Chinese-American installation artist and painter
Florence Oy Wong discusses the influences in her life which have encouraged and
provided a focus for her art in a Lawrence University Fine Arts Colloquium
Monday, October 23.  Wong's slide presentation and lecture entitled, "Creating
Art from Life/Life from Art," will be held in the Wriston Art Center Auditorium
on the Lawrence campus at 7 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.
	Much of Wong's work is inspired by her experiences as a Chinese-American
woman artist growing up in the Chinatown district of Oakland, Calif.  She
created subtle, psychological drama in her seminal work of drawings from the
mid-to-late 1980s entitled, "Oakland Chinatown Series," which focused on the
flavor and spirit of individuals from her youth.  Subsequent works in her
"TUianUanmen Series" revealed an outpouring of emotional despair and tumult over
the massacre and a sense of betrayal.  In 1990, she began her "Circle Series,"
which responds to and addresses a range of events from Wong's personal life as
well as the impact of larger American political realities that have had serious
consequences for the lives of all  people of color in America. 
	 Currently a visiting artist at University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wong
has had her works exhibited widely, including a 1994 group show at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.  Three of her works from the
"Oakland Chinatown Series" were selected for an upcoming multicultural reader
excerpt from Amy Tan's, "The Joy Luck Club."  Recipient of the 1995 Women's
Caucus for Art President's Award, she is the sister of well-known American poet
Nellie Wong. 


Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-659