Wong Shue

Adrian Wong Shue was born on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in the West Indies, to Cantonese-Jamaican parents. He studied in Kingston, Jamaica and Los Angeles, California. After visiting the United States several times, Wong Shue moved to Los Angeles in 1980, where he found individual freedom. Later, he attended Antioch University, where he graduated with a B.A in psychology. At the age of seven, he began experimenting with colors from flower petals and executed his first deliberate painting. It was a painting of the Giant Green Dog, a legendary dog from the hills of St. Andrew. From that point on, painting became an obsession. At the age of 14, Wong Shue began the study of charcoal drawing with private instruction from Alfred Chin of Canton, China. At the age of 16, he was the personal student of Alexander Cooper at Kingston College. In less than three decades, Wong Shue experienced the social and political changes of colonialism, independence and socialism. Isolation, as a child and teenager, produced a sensitivity to life, as expressed in his paintings. His earlier pen and ink drawings were realistic images of daily life and communicate the full scope of human emotion. Wong Shue is popularly known for his intricate paintings on Japanese Natsume and Chinese rice paper. He also does drawings in pastels, charcoal, ink and pencil, as well as woodcuts and etchings. His paintings, many of them figures painted from live models, consist of oil on canvas, gouache, acrylic and watercolor.

(Biography provided by Robert Azensky Fine Art)

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Explore a vast range of abstract prints on 1stDibs to find a piece to enhance your existing collection or transform a space.

Unlike figurative paintings and other figurative art, which focuses on realism and representational perspectives, abstract art concentrates on visual interpretation. An artist may use a single color or simple geometric forms to create a world of depth. Printmaking has a rich history of abstraction. Through materials like stone, metal, wood and wax, an image can be transferred from one surface to another.

During the 19th century, iconic artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton and others, began exploring works based on shapes and colors. This was a departure from the academic conventions of European painting and would influence the rise of 20th-century abstraction and its pioneers, like Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

Some leaders of European abstraction, including Franz Kline, were influenced by the gestural shapes of East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy interprets poetry, songs, symbols or other means of storytelling into art, from works on paper in Japan to elements of Islamic architecture.

Bold, daring and expressive, abstract art is constantly evolving and dazzling viewers. And entire genres have blossomed from it, such as Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The collection of abstract art prints on 1stDibs includes etchings, lithographs, screen-prints and other works, and you can find prints by artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and more.