Matthew Wong (1984–2019) began painting seriously in 2012, after studying cultural anthropology, then photography, then drawing. Seven years later, at 35, he died by his own hand. In those seven years, Wong produced a body of work that drew comparisons to Van Gogh, Vuillard, Bonnard, and the Chinese literati painters he studied obsessively. Roberta Smith called his work “among the most nourishing painting” she had ever encountered. Wong’s life was turbulent: he lived with autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and depression. He worked in near-isolation in Edmonton, Canada, posting his paintings to Facebook, where they caught the attention of dealers and led to a debut solo show in 2018, at New York’s Karma gallery. His second show, “Blue,” opened posthumously at Karma in November 2019. Now, in a Venetian palazzo, his eponymous foundation is presenting a show of never-before-exhibited works. —Elena Clavarino