The Block Museum is pleased to announce that its Collection Council has selected and supported for acquisition works by Martin Wong and Sammy Baloji.

The Collection Council convened virtually throughout the 2024–25 academic year, debating and narrowing down a shortlist of artists nominated by its members and The Block’s curatorial team. Focused on works reflecting this year’s theme, “the city” the works by Martin Wong and Sammy Baloji explore the changing dynamics of urban life.

“We are deeply grateful to the Collection Council for its members’ thoughtful and inspired selection of works by Martin Wong and Sammy Baloji,” said Lisa Corrin, The Block’s Ellen Philips Katz Executive Director. “These acquisitions reflect the Council’s commitment to bringing powerful works into the collection that will challenge, engage, and inspire faculty and students to integrate them into teaching and learning for years to come. By focusing on the theme of ‘the city,’ the subject of an upcoming 2026 Block exhibition, these works will lay the groundwork for faculty to begin thinking about how to connect this theme to their syllabi.”

The Collection Council selected Traffic Signs for the Hearing Impaired (School for Deaf) by Martin Wong, a piece of archived public art consisting of a pair of street signs. Wong (1946–1999) was a Chinese American artist and a key figure in the East Village art scene of the 1980s and 1990s. He is celebrated for his stylized depictions of New York’s changing neighborhoods and his intimate portrayals of the city’s communities before the effects of gentrification took hold. Wong died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 53, and his influence continues to resonate across generations of artists.

Wong created the Traffic Signs for the Hearing Impaired series during a six-month artist residency at the New York City Department of Transportation’s sign shop in 1990. The signs mimic standard traffic signage but transcribe messages into stylized depictions of ASL fingerspelling. They were installed across New York’s five boroughs in 1991; one remains in use today near 23rd Street and 9th Avenue.

The work reflects Wong’s fascination with language systems, as well as his desire to break down the boundaries between art and public life. A poet and calligrapher as well as a painter, Wong often merged text and image into a singular visual language.  “He was always striving for the ‘three perfections,’ which in Chinese history is this ability to visually display your prowess with art, poetry, and calligraphy,” said Isaac Alpert, director of estates at P·P·O·W, which manages Wong’s estate. “The ultimate would be to combine all three into one.”

Kate Hadley Toftness, assistant director of advancement and strategic initiatives at The Block, shared that the Council was especially interested in how the work engages with public space. “The signs show us how an artist can collaborate with a civic agency to shape the experience of urban life. The artwork itself is enlivened through actual use—embedded in the built environment and encountered as part of daily life.”

“Wong’s work is of tremendous historical importance,” said Corrin. “This work reflects the artist’s deep engagement with language and visibility, as well as his ability to shape the landscape of the city through public art. We are grateful to the artist’s estate and P·P·O·W gallery for making the acquisition possible.”

The Council also selected work by Sammy Baloji (b. 1978), a photographer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who works in Lubumbashi and Brussels. Baloji grew up in Lubumbashi, in the Katanga Province of Congo, a region that has long been a site of mineral extraction and industrial expansion. Baloji’s ongoing research and photography examine the impact of mining, industry, and economic imperialism on the local population in the Katanga region. He often utilizes archival material to explore collective memory and understand how colonial narratives were visualized.

The Block is acquiring Baloji’s diptych photograph Raccord #1, Cité de Kawama. On the left, Baloji photographs a sprawl of orange tarpaulin tents housing Congolese miners—an image of territorial and economic instability that intensified after the 2006 democratic elections, when foreign investors, including China, promised infrastructure in exchange for access to mineral resources. On the right, Baloji juxtaposes a glossy Chinese poster found decorating one of the tents. The poster envisions an idealized future Katanga: green lawns, palm trees, and swimming pools. “I was interested in mirroring [the posters] between the reality of hard extraction that is happening, with dangerous conditions, versus this ideal world that will never come,” Baloji shared with the Council.

Toftness noted that the acquisition helps expand The Block’s alignment with the University’s strengths in African studies. “We were interested in perspectives representing a more global city,” she said. “Baloji’s work deepens our collection while complementing resources like the Melville J. Herskovits Library at Northwestern.”

The Collection Council continues to be a driving force behind The Block’s efforts to acquire resonant works that engage the Northwestern community. Acquisitions are also the building blocks for future exhibitions and amplify new research connected to the collection. Next year’s acquisition will focus on “abstraction,” in alignment with Pouring, Spilling, Bleeding: Helen Frankenthaler and Artists’ Experiments on Paper, opening in fall 2025.

The Collection Council convenes virtually; members do not have to be local to Chicago to join. More information on membership can be found on The Block website, including a new half-price tier for members under 40 years old. Questions can be directed to Kate Hadley Toftness, kh.toftness@northwestern.edu.