Rather than using photographs or drawings in order to create his landscapes as painters such as Grahame Sydney do, Brent Wong worked from memory. His depictions evoked empty farmland, perhaps the Wairarapa or Hawke’s Bay, where human and animal presence was replaced by geometric constructions suspended in the sky. Impressed by his originality, Rita Angus encouraged him to exhibit with The Group, a progressive association of artists in Christchurch which she belonged to. By the age of 24 in August 1969, he had mounted his first solo exhibition of 12 paintings at the Rothman’s Cultural Centre in Wellington, and had four works published in the literary and arts journal Ascent. The Hocken Library in Dunedin bought a painting, and he was soon acclaimed as a major new talent.

Brent Wong was a finalist in the Benson and Hedges Art Award, 1970, which his brother Wong Sing Tai (Harry Wong) had won in its inaugural year. By 1971 when this work was made, Brent Wong was exhibiting nationally. While his brother showed at Peter McLeavey Gallery, Brent Wong showed his new work in the display space at Victoria University Library. The reviewer described his paintings as haunted by “some mechanical monster or robot ghost” which hovers above the New Zealand landscape, in a sky painted “a disquieting blue”. Soon Brent Wong had a grant from the QEII Arts Council to make an exhibition of new work for sale at the Barry Lett Galleries in Auckland and had won the $500 top prize in the Tokoroa Art Award. He stopped painting in 2008 to concentrate on musical composition, his other great love.