Thomas Kong (1950–2023) was an artist working in collage and assemblage, using advertising, packaging, and other surplus material from his convenience store, Kim's Corner Food, located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.

Kong roughly created 30,000 pieces of collage from 2013-2023. Due to safety concerns, the estate could not rescue all the artworks. With the community’s support, the estate is currently working on archiving roughly 3,000 pieces of artworks at 062, located in Pilsen. Currently, the estate is working on digitization of artworks and the images will be available by the end of Spring 2026. If you’d like to schedule a visit to view the works, please reach out to us directly using the form below.

Please visit https://thomaskong.biz/ for more information about past exhibitions, publications and press.

Archives

Community Members who are involved

Sungho Bae, Kerry Cardoza, Gabriel Chalfin-Piney-González, Robert Chase Heishman, Andrea Hunt, Myungah Hyon, Fia Kim, Jennifer Keats, Anna Kunz, Akira Kuroki, Mayumi Lake, Ellen Larson, Sungjae Lee, Tony Lewis, S.Y. Lim, Lu Liang, Shawn Lucas, Tomoe Miyazaki, Lizzy Moo, Abby Pucker, Hunter Riley, Soo Shin, Kate Sierzputowski, Nathan Smith, Jonathan Solomon, Claire Voon, Mary Eleanor Wallace, Lindsey White, Guanyu Xu, Angela Zonunpari, and Yechen Zhao.

Thomas Kong’s works are available here:
Buddy Chicago
Utrecht / Now IDea Tokyo

On View:
Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago at Intuit Museum

Press:
How to be Happy - Kerry Cardoza, Chicago Reader

Sponsors

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If you’d like to visit the archive and see the works in person, please reach out to us!