About
John Wong, also known as Nothing is Real, is a multidisciplinary artist based in the UK, working across painting, film, theatre, and AI. His practice inhabits the “in-between” spaces of these forms, exploring relationships between patterns and colours, ancient fortune-telling systems and contemporary superstitions, natural and fabricated realities, and the quiet solitude of everyday life.
In his AI-based practice, Wong approaches the machine as a collaborator in a painterly process. Beyond visual prompting, he builds and refines personal visual applications through micro-editing and vibe coding, developing custom systems that allow him to manipulate rhythm, texture, logic, and emotional tone in iterative layers. This approach translates the embodied experience of painting into a digital framework, making code part of a tactile and immersive process of creation.
His early career included participation in the ARX5 cultural exchange across Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong (1998–1999), and the screening of his film The Tourist at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. His algorithmic installation RuShi was presented at the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival in 2018 and ISEA2019 in Gwangju, and received the Best in Show — Art Gallery award at SIGGRAPH 2019 in Los Angeles. In 2020, RuChu AR was selected for the Peer to Peer UK/HK online exhibition. In 2023, Wong participated in CTRL, an artist development programme curated by The Lowry and Submerge Festival in Greater Manchester.
His recent AI artworks have been exhibited internationally, including in London, New York, and San Francisco. Lemon Yellow was shortlisted for the Visual Art Open 2024 UK & International Emerging Artist Awards. In 2025, Nothing is Real_149 was featured in Midjourney Magazine, issue 23, while his Nothing is Real series received Silver in the Special / AI Generated Images category at the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris.
His Museum of Prompt series was presented in AI and Motion at ALT FEST, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Arizona, in 2025, and at the Athens Digital Arts Festival in 2026. The series was also included in creAtIva’s It Is Argument, AI Art Book Vol. 9 (2026).
His artist name, Nothing is Real, takes its inspiration from The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever, reflecting their enduring influence on his creative journey.