I saw Jordan Wong, aka WONGFACE, before he saw me. We were scheduled for a personal tour of his exhibition Play is Infinite (December 2024 - May 2025) at The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum.

Wong stands tall with long black hair curtaining his face; dressed in neutrals, he presented as an ominous figure from a distance, but his gait was curious … it seemed to me he was floating. When he noticed me–a sprite in comparison, prone to bouncing, with glitter on my eyelids, donning heart-shaped sunglasses and a green fur jacket–he hovered in my direction with his hand outstretched and an endearing smile. “Your outfit beautifully matches the artwork you’re standing in front of, as if you belong in the piece.”

His greeting warmed me; I felt I was meeting an old friend, only we’d never met.

Jordan Wong | *Everything x Nothing* (2024) | laser-engraved wood panel with black stained finish and powder-coated steel frame
*photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

Who is WONGFACE?

Jordan Wong is a second-generation born Chinese American and Pittsburgh native living in Cleveland. Wong has been drawing since he was 4-years old, inspired by anime, manga, video games and Transformers. As a child, he noted his difference among his peers and felt separate; escaping into art allowed him to create a world where he belonged and could thrive. He went inside.

At California University of Pennsylvania, he focused on refining his art through graphic design. After two years of unemployment following graduation, Wong began working for himself supporting local businesses, non-profits, and other solo entrepreneurs in Cleveland with logos and identities. He began showing his personal art and illustrations in coffee shops, which garnered him exposure and generated interest. For the past three years, Wong has shifted his time and energy toward his fine art practice and collaborative projects where he assists as design consultant or art director. Wong attributes his success to the relationships he has cultivated in his creative profession.

Play is Infinite

Play is Infinite is a collection of eight works displayed on various mediums highlighting processes to teach kids about building an art practice. Drawing inspiration from his cultural heritage alongside modern influences, Wong bridges the gap between digital and physical artistry; themes of creativity, empowerment, and personal growth are expressed in his own code. “I resonated with anime characters [as a child]; their stories and the journey to leveling up. I grew up in a neighborhood where no one looked like me, there were no Asian kids. I struggled to find belonging and identity. I connected with the heroes’ feelings of inadequacy, doubt, and insecurity. Witnessing their character development and subsequent transformation taught me about expressing empowerment.”

*Xiao Huo Miao II* (2024) | *photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

Xiao Huo Miao II (2024) is a lightbox of vibrant color inspired by Asian food packaging, which often includes mascots—a blue flame with a face against a pink background advertises antagonistic elements and gameplay iconography. The B with an arrow pointing backward means, if you hit B, you go back; and health bars identify your energy level. The mascot represents the spark of creativity, the things we face as an artist when trying to come up with ideas, while connecting with the energy of flow.

*Tao* (2023) | *photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

Tao (2023) is an industrial print on DIBOND, white elements against a black background, paying reverence to Wong’s Chinese—specifically Toisanese—heritage. Many of the first Chinese immigrants came to America to build better lives for themselves and their loved ones. The railroad track motif pays homage to Wong’s ancestors, whose sacrifices paved the way for him as their descendant. The characters are the code: 韌 represents “tenacity,” and the other three, 破極限, translate to “break through limits”.

The collectivism mindset in Chinese culture expresses gratitude in sacrificial living for future generations, and Jordan is mindful of his blessing. “Living as a full-time artist means I come from ancestors who persisted and persevered.” He takes his work seriously, while having fun. “It's a game of chess for me, creating these drawings and orchestrating all the elements. So I establish rules for myself—subtle representations of philosophies I'm playing with in my head.”

Gamifying Life: The Hero’s Journey

Relating to Wong is easy; I notice there exists between us no difference as we interact—we are autonomous, and the same. The philosophies he plays with, I also stretch and pull with imagination. Visual language assists Wong in his quest for identity; mantras hum mysteriously inside each work, offering subtle clues to his progress.

Is the Ultimate Self a destination, or a journey? Is it in your mind?

“That's the question,” Jordan poses, “Initially, it feels like a destination, and then it turns into a journey.”

Play is Infinite returns us to our most inherent desires—those developed innocently, in childhood. Who I dreamt of growing up to be is possible to achieve. I lean heavily on symbolism in my own work, which is centered on self-discovery and expressing a higher, or “healed”, self. There are many factors shaping what we believe about ourselves, and through art as therapeutic practice, I’ve grown more interested in what I believe about myself and expressing that self through my work. So it is easy for me to get lost in Wong’s world, because I find my Ultimate Self reflected.

*BOOM x BLOOM* (2024) | Gold-foil embossed print with laser-engraved mat | *photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

Creativity is an empowered state.

PLAY x FLOW (2024) is another personification of creativity from an anxious place and the franticness of having these ideas within you wanting to express. Wong used blue pencil to represent the I-gotta-get-it-out feeling—the hurried nature behind capturing an idea and birthing it.

Creativity is innate to being human. We envision things that don’t exist and bring them into existence. Wong and I each believe our natural state of being is the creative flow—of ideas, inspirations, thoughts, contemplations and emotions. Boredom is ripe for imagination and mistakes are lessons; keys in mastering one’s artistry and becoming. The process of creation, with its inherent imperfections, is essential to finding authenticity and connecting with one's true self.

“An empowered artist is someone who manifests anything that's,” Jordan taps his skull, “up in here. We have the freedom to create. The second quality of an empowered artist is being able to share it; to take all the stuff that's inside you and expose it to empower others with delight and inspiration.”

*PLAY x FLOW* (2024) | *photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

Mastery Requires Practice & Discipline

Wong’s follow up exhibition is PRACTICE+-, a collection of 23 works on display at The Portal (February - April 2025), inviting us to ask the question: What am I practicing with the words I use and the thoughts I entertain? To achieve mastery of the self, one must practice being the self.

I studied each piece in PRACTICE+-, making notes of the repeating icons (the animals: rabbit, fish, hawk, turtle, and tiger), and began transcribing his code; the hints of how Wong achieves mastery.

oki doki
Hi!
PRESS START BOSS
LESS◼N UH? SURE OMW
UP x OUT
CLASSIC NICE PAL
BELONG
BEGIN AGAIN
WON ONE
SLOW STAR
YEAH GET UP HEY PLAY
be NOW
DREAM UP MY HOME
SOFT OPEN A+
FLOW BURST RAD LIFE GOOD TALE FINAL
LET’S PARTY THERE HERE AWAY
YES I DO!
THINK ONCE MORE
EVERYTHING X NOTHING
AND YET…
TAO HA HA OH WOW
IT IS HAPPENING!!!
WOUNDS ▶ WISDOM
TOO MANY? CONTINUE
KO OVER
MAX PWR
MASTER SELF
END

The Sun Series was my favorite; 12 limited edition screen prints of organized chaos with hidden meaning. I decided to play with Wong’s code and counted out to the ninth piece, from left to right, treating it like a tarot card.

I am AS WITHIN
OUTSIDE 50%

Xiao Huo Miao II (2025) returns in this collection as a holographic piece, revealing creativity is always there inside of us. Sometimes you have to change positions, look from another angle, to see it. When you look, it may seem new, and it may also feel familiar. The Ultimate Self works like that.

Wong is forthcoming about the time it’s taken him to embrace his Ultimate Self, it doesn’t happen overnight, and I can commiserate the task of changing and growing into a new identity as I believe it of myself. SLOW is in my personal code, too.

“It took time to be comfortable with the identity of being an artist, and embrace my sense of self,” Jordan shares, “It was more than 30 years before I could look in the mirror and be really proud of the person looking back. The confidence was built in the freedom to express—to be myself, both in my art and daily interactions, conversations, everything. There's discipline required, and so much practice that has to be done.”

Being Ultimate Begins Inside

The Ultimate Self begins as a fantasy version of oneself—all powerful, capable of anything, magnetic and beautiful. Creating this self is a way to combat feelings of insecurity or the struggle to find belonging. “The version of me standing here is my younger self realizing I can do this. That’s the first level,” Wong explains. “Then it's discovering why you want to do it, and who can you do it with? Who can you do it for? As I've gotten older, the Ultimate Self is a more contemplative idea. I’m exploring all the questions, what is it? Does it follow you? Is it something you attain?”

Achieving the Ultimate Self is connected to a sense of ego death, liberation from external influences, and a focus on inner wholeness. There is no step-by-step process, no prescribed method for achieving the Ultimate Self. It is a multifaceted, evolving journey; a culmination of lived experiences intertwined with artistic practice and self-discovery converging into a unified whole. This can manifest as an intense moment of clarity, an epiphany. The Ultimate Self is not a fixed state but rather a fluctuating one, with periods of connection and disconnection. The journey, including moments outside of this Ultimate Self, is part of its development.

I can see Wong’s code inside his work because I have my own. I learned to achieve the Ultimate Self when I recognized it's not as much about becoming myself, as it is being myself.

Wong’s beaming face tells me I struck a chord; this is why I felt I knew him at first meeting. “Most understand this in theory but not in practice,” he agrees, “When you come to this realization and you practice, you learn to focus your energy inside and that affects your external experience. It’s not the other way around. A lot of the time we point the finger, judging a situation, person or interaction instead of going inward to calibrate ourselves. It's really our perception of those things, and how we react or respond to them that shapes reality and the worldview we craft. The external doesn't matter; or it matters less and less—a hard pill to swallow.”

Like Wong, my quest has been decades in the making, and Memoirtistry is the method I developed to aid me. To be the Ultimate Self, I’ve had to make peace with, and sometimes sacrifice, the parts of me who do not believe in me so I can change into someone I’ve never been. In Taoism, there is a belief of effortless effort—striving for something while also not having it simultaneously be a practice of lack. “This is where it gets paradoxical,” Wong explains, “In the pursuit to become the Ultimate Self, you begin with the idea you are not the Ultimate Self, which is not within the definition of being the Ultimate Self. So it's turning in on itself. Recontextualizing it, in what ways am I preventing myself from being me? Because at the end of the day, you can't be someone else. You have to be you.”

He adds a caveat. “It’s very scary to grab what you want.”

Wong emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, emotional awareness, and addressing inner anxieties as crucial steps. This involves acknowledging and processing difficult emotions, such as those stemming from trauma or feelings of inadequacy. Practice doesn’t equal perfection, it becomes play and anything goes, infinitely. When I am present with my Ultimate Self, I feel good being myself; I don't want to live in my head. I want to engage with the world and consciously respond.

Wong’s art expresses the strength that comes from believing in the self. “It's a powerful thought exercise to envision yourself as the Ultimate Self. How do they act? What are they prioritizing? What are their habits? When you start implementing what you learn, you realize the Ultimate Self is me. It's me right now already.”

Play & Practice are a guidebook to the Ultimate Self.

Wong encourages infinite play and ongoing practice to be the Ultimate Self. It’s a cycle of growth that allows you to be the most you you can be. When Wong first greeted me at The Children’s Museum, his Ultimate Self met mine; the ease in creative conversation, asking questions and wondering, we were artists in tune.

*Dreamland* (2024) | vinyl print | *photo courtesy of Cornelius Martin of* *Wick Monet*

inside of WONGFACE, I see myself reflected,

and because I see

I can be

more me

simply because he

is being

We are the only ones who can fully realize ourselves. This pursuit can involve rebelling against societal expectations and instead, embracing vulnerability. Authenticity and sincerity have strong energetic resonance. “Anything outside of that,” Wong explains, “if there's not an organic flow or vibrance to it, is contrived, fake. It's forced. Something with high energetic qualities is also that which is the most comfortable and accepting and true. The Ultimate Self is your truest self.”

BEcomING the Ultimate Self