I’m pleased to share that I was recently featured on Art Problems Podcast with Paddy Johnson. Episode 111 aired on May 8, 2026.
In our conversation, we discuss artist imposter syndrome, negative self-talk, and how grant writing can become a path toward self-acceptance. We also talk about the shifting goalposts of success in the art world, the pressures artists place on themselves, and how to remain generous and grounded without losing yourself in the process.
As the episode summary notes, many artists struggle with the feeling that they don’t belong or that their work doesn’t matter — even in the face of external success. This conversation explores how those internal narratives shape creative practice and how artists can begin to move through them with greater clarity and compassion.
I’m pleased to share that I’ll be participating in Fiber Forward, a group exhibition at The Gallery at Yellow Studio, on view from May 30 through June 29, 2026. My newest fiber installation, Lacuna 2 (image below), will be on view.
Curated by Tina Villaveces, the exhibition brings together 38 women and non-binary artists working in fiber, exploring the space between tradition and innovation through sculpture, installation, textiles, and mixed media. I’m honored to be included among such a dynamic group of artists engaging with material, process, and meaning in thoughtful ways.
All are welcome to the opening reception on Saturday, May 30, from 4–6pm. The exhibition will also be part of Upstate Art Weekend (June 25–29), with an artist talk scheduled for Saturday, June 27 at 2pm.
Yellow Studio
Yellow Monkey Village
792 Route 35
Cross River, NY 10518
I’m pleased to announce that two new works from my Lethe’s Garden series will be on view and available through SLATE Contemporary Gallery’s booth F17 at the San Francisco Art Fair, April 16–19 at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. I will be at the opening the evening of Thursday, April 16th. If you’re in the Bay Area, I hope to see you there!
Tickets and visiting information are available at sanfranciscoartfair.com/visit.
About the Work
Lethe’s Garden takes its name from the mythological Greek river flowing through Hades — the river of forgetting, whose waters erased the memory of past lives. The works in this series are dense, layered, and ornate: colored pencil, gouache, graphite, oil paint, alcohol ink, and fabric built up on paper into something that is, at once, lush and slightly elusive. There’s a ghost-like quality to the graphite that drifts along the margins. A kind of erasure folded inside the abundance.Lethe’s Garden 5
2025
Graphite, colored pencil, gouache, oil paint, alcohol ink and fabric on paper
24 × 19 × 1.75 in | Framed in white wood: 26.5 × 21.5 in
$3,000
Lethe’s Garden 6
2025
Graphite, colored pencil, gouache, oil paint, alcohol ink and fabric on paper
24 × 19 × 1.75 in | Framed in white wood: 26.5 × 21.5 in
$3,000
To browse my full inventory at SLATE Contemporary Gallery, visit slatecontemporary.com/artist/holly-wong.
SLATE Contemporary Gallery will be present at the fair throughout the weekend.
Sending my best wishes to all for a warm and refreshing Spring.
The Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery at Broward College is pleased to present Ascension, a solo exhibition by San Francisco-based artist Holly Wong, curated by Bridgette Mayer, Director and Owner of Bridgette Mayer Gallery. An opening reception from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, February 19 and an artist lecture at 5 p.m. will be held. Light refreshments will be served, and the event is free and open to the public. We hope you can join us to celebrate the artists and their work and to enjoy some delicious food and drink. The exhibition will run through Saturday, April 4, 2026.
I will be leading an online workshop through the Surface Design Association titled Thinking Big: Creating Installation-Scale Fiber Art with Confidence, taking place March 7–14, 2026.
This workshop is designed for artists interested in expanding their fiber practice beyond the studio and into immersive, installation-scale work. The course focuses on bridging the gap between intimate, hand-based processes and the demands of architectural and public space.
Participants will explore both conceptual frameworks and practical strategies for working at scale, including modular construction methods, material selection for durability and impact, and approaches to site analysis. The workshop will also address professional considerations such as budgeting, negotiation, shipping, storage, and installation logistics.
Additional topics include safety protocols, rigging solutions, LED integration, and tools for maintaining artistic vision while managing the complexity of large-scale projects. Emphasis will be placed on confidence-building, problem-solving, and developing sustainable practices for ambitious work.
Registration is now open through the Surface Design Association:
https://www.surfacedesign.org/events-exhibits/sda-workshops-2026/thinking-big/
I am pleased to share that I will be participating in the Surface Design Association’s 2026 Online Symposium, Fiber & Form: Tactile Acts of Threading Space, taking place in February.
On February 7, I will join the panel discussion “Monumental Threads: The Sensation of Scale in Contemporary Fiber.” The panel brings together artists working with fiber at architectural and installation scale, exploring how materials traditionally associated with intimacy and the domestic can expand to occupy powerful physical and conceptual space.
I will be in conversation with Amanda Browder, known for her large-scale, community-based textile installations around the world, and Carmen Mardonez, whose monumental embroideries engage themes of resistance, memory, and liberation. Together, we will discuss process, scale, collaboration, and what it means to create fiber work that is immersive and spatially commanding.
The symposium theme reflects a broader movement within contemporary fiber practice—one that pushes beyond the wall to engage volume, architecture, and embodied experience. Fiber artists today are weaving, knotting, binding, and constructing work that insists on presence and agency.
The full day of programming on February 7 features keynote speaker Kandy Lopez, with additional meetups and studio visits continuing through February 12.
Learn more and register here:
https://www.surfacedesign.org/events-exhibits/sdas-2026-online-symposium/
The SDA is committed to increasing access to their educational programming. Scholarships are available for both members and non-members. Artists for whom cost presents a barrier are encouraged to apply by Saturday, January 31, 2026.
Scholarship application:
https://www.surfacedesign.org/events-exhibits/conferences/sda-2024-conference-paralell-play/conference-scholarship-application/
I am grateful to have received an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Sheridan Prize for Art, in the Women’s Art category.
My selected work, Mending Light, is a fiber installation incorporating LED light. The piece was shown at Karl Arts in San Francisco, courtesy of SLATE Contemporary Gallery.
Thank you to John Sheridan for his continued commitment to supporting Bay Area artists, and to juror Kayte A. Petro for selecting my work. I’m grateful to be included among such a strong group of artists, including award winner Holly Lane.
The Sheridan Prize is notable for its inclusivity across artistic practices, and I especially appreciate its commitment to accessibility, including welcoming incarcerated artists to apply with no entry fee.
You can view the selected artists here:
Submissions for the Sheridan Prize typically open each fall.
I am currently at work on a new series of fiber-based wall pieces titled Nereids, inspired by the Greek sea nymphs. These works function as protective spirits and are being created in dialogue with my acrylic sculpture Hydra.
Both bodies of work will be presented as part of my upcoming solo exhibition, Ascension, at Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery at Broward College, opening in February 2026. The exhibition will be curated by my dear friend Bridgette Mayer of Bridgette Mayer Gallery. I’m deeply grateful for her involvement and looking forward to sharing more as the project develops.
The Nereids are constructed from layers of polyester tulle, with light-reflective thread sewn throughout the fabric. I begin with deeper colors as a base, then add additional layers and folds to build a subtle figural presence. Through this process, I aim to conjure a specific entity—one I often feel but cannot fully name. The materiality of the work is immersive, and the joy of the making process continually pulls me deeper into it.
Walker Fine Art is excited to announce PERFECTLY LOST, an exhibition that beckons us back to our innate curiosity – a call to explore freely and rediscover wonder in the everyday.
Through installation, painting, and mixed media, six artists reflect on how our environment can gently shape us, offering a space for healing, inspiration and transformation.
Rooted in the richness of the natural world and guided by a deep sensitivity of color and material, their work evokes moments suspended beyond and time and place - inviting us to slow down and simply be.
We invite you to join us for an Opening Reception on November 14, from 5-8PM.
For more information, please find the full Press Release linked below.
I am really looking forward to participating in an artist's panel discussion at the Karl SF on Saturday, October 11 at 1pm!
Moderated by the amazing Ariel Zaccheo, Curatorial Director of the Museum of Craft and Design, it promises to be amazing.
I look forward to hearing from my fellow artists Tana Quincy Arcega and Greg Climer whose work I have admired for some time.
All are welcome. We hope to see you there!
RSVP to attend here: https://partiful.com/e/gjSweFJtD13OtVZNuNFT
Book Launch: Mending Body, Mending Mind
Saturday, September 20, 2025 | 3:00–5:00 PM
SLATE Contemporary
473 25th Street, Oakland, CA 94612
Join us for the launch of Mending Body, Mending Mind, a new publication created to accompany our current exhibition. This thoughtful collection features essays by Elizabeth Wiet and Mira Dayal, alongside poems by Aya Karpińska, offering compelling reflections on this mid-career survey.
The afternoon will include an in-person conversation between book editor Elizabeth Wiet, the artist, and gallery Principal Partner Danielle Fox, providing unique insights into the creative process and the book's development.
Event Details:
-Books available for purchase on-site
-Free and open to the public
Preview the book online: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/498042742/
Purchase the book: https://slatecontemporary.com/show/slate-art-full-circle-a-solo-exhibition-by-holly-wong
I’m excited to share that Full Circle, my second solo exhibition at SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, will open September 5th. The exhibition serves as a mid-career survey exhibition, bringing together different bodies of work that all explore the process of healing through a spiritual lens. I am incredibly grateful to the team at SLATE who have helped organize not only the on-site exhibition, but a rich calendar of programming (listed below), the launch of a new book, and additional installations that will be on view in San Francisco for the month of October.
To accompany the exhibition, a new book has been published titled Mending Body, Mending Mind. This new publication features essays by Elizabeth Wiet and Mira Dayal, as well as poems by Aya Karpińska. It is such an honor to offer their reflections on this work as part of the exhibition, and I look forward to attending the book launch in the gallery (see event details below).
Two related pieces, Deconstructed Quilt 2 and Body of Light, will also be installed for the month of October at Karl: The Art of Fashion, in San Francisco (see below for more info). This group exhibition invites viewers to consider the aesthetic and political power embedded in the textile tradition. It will feature artists who harness the language of material to challenge hierarchies of art and craft, exploring identity, labor, and the gendered histories of making as a means of inviting viewers to consider the aesthetic and political power embedded in the textile tradition.
FULL LIST OF PROGRAMMING
Evening Opening Reception:
Friday September 5, 2025, 6–8pm
SLATE Contemporary
473 25th Street Oakland CA 94612
Afternoon Reception and Book Launch:
Saturday September 20, 3–5pm
SLATE Contemporary
473 25th Street Oakland CA 94612
KARL: The Art of Fashion
Friday October 3, 6–9pm
KARL@ Levis Plaza
1255 Battery St. San Francisco CA 94111
KARL exhibition open other days by appointment.
info@slateart.net for appointments.
Artist Talk:
Saturday October 11, 3pm
Artist to be interviewed by Ariel Zaccheo
Curatorial Director, Museum of Craft & Design
Location to be confirmed
Email info@slateart.net for details
SLATE Contemporary Gallery Information:
Free and open to the public
Saturdays 12:00pm – 5:00pm
First Fridays from 12:00pm – 8:00pm
Weekdays by appointment.
For more information, please contact info@slateart.net
ELLIO is proud to present Sacred Letters, the debut solo exhibition by acclaimed artist Holly Wong. Featuring a new series of collaged paintings on shaped aluminum and mixed media drawings on paper that explore the process of healing through a spiritual lens. Companion works in the exhibition include wall-based fiber assemblages, and a large, suspended installation of light reflective film.
We invite you to join us for an Opening Reception on Friday, May 16th, from 6-8pm.
For more information, please find the full Press Release linked below.
I am thrilled to share the publication of my catalog "Incantations" through Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia, celebrating my first solo exhibition with the gallery in the Fall of 2024. The catalog essay was beautifully written by critic, poet and curator John Yau who I continue to be grateful to for his insights and generosity.
Fully illustrated in color with many installation views of the exhibition plus lush details, I hope you will check it out!
It can be purchased by clicking on the link below:
The price for this 42-page soft cover book is $32 plus $5 shipping (within the U.S). If you need international shipping, please contact the gallery at cclark@bmayerart.com
Thank you for your support!
Dear Friends,
I hope this reaches you well and in good spirits! I wanted to share an update that I am participating in the group exhibition “Paper Planes” at SLATE Contemporary Gallery, in Oakland, California. I have three new smoke paintings on paper in the show that I can’t wait to share with you! I will be at the opening on Saturday, March 8th at 3pm and hope to see you there!
Featured here:
Internal Logic 2
2025
Mixed media on 19” x 24” paper framed in white wood to 22" x 27"
$2,800
View all the works in the show: https://slatecontemporary.com/show/slate-art-paper-planes
Here is an excerpt from the press release describing my work and that of fellow artist and kindred spirit Lisa Kairos. You can read the full press release which provides a wonderful overview of the show by visiting the link below.
"The tension between nature and technology, or between chaos and control, also comes through in the art of Lisa Kairos and Holly Wong, both of whose work explodes in all directions while at the same time drawing us into a series of highly detailed and purposeful marks made by drawing. Wong’s works stand out from the others in the show with their complexity of mediums, as the artist uses a combination of gouache, graphite, colored pencil, ink, candle smoke, and collaged drafting film in each piece."
Read the press release: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3rdjhuufc4uhsrf36x9us/Paper-Planes-Press-Release.pdf?rlkey=iauu7nc1y1bgh1rvuu47z0vlc&e=1&dl=0
Exhibition Dates: March 7 – May 3, 2025
Gallery Hours: First Fridays 12 – 8, Saturdays 12 – 5, and weekdays by appointment
Artists Reception: Saturday, March 8, 3 – 5pm
SLATE Contemporary Gallery, 473 25th Street, Oakland, CA
Hope you can visit the show! Would love to meet you at the opening!
All the best,
Holly