Natalie Wong presents "NEON RAP PORTRAITS", her latest artwork featuring a series of twelve portraits of influential rappers created with electroluminescent wire on fluorescent acrylic. Leaving the world of law and finance, Natalie Wong took the plunge to do what she always loved, becoming a mixed media artist best known for her work '100 Paper Sneakers' in 2016. Her interest in urban art and street culture have been influenced from her upbringing in the UK as well as her move to Asia in 2012, where she now resides in Hong Kong. Natalie has exhibited all around the world, working with major brands including a collaboration with Nike to create a sculpture to celebrate the LeBron James Asia Tour. 

"NEON RAP PORTRAITS" is inspired by contour drawings from artists such as Picasso and Egon Shiele. She uses a traditional drawing technique - continuous line drawing, where the drawing is created without taking the drawing instrument off the page.  The freestyle drawing of each portrait mirrors the way in which rappers freestyle lyrics. 

“I wanted to pay tribute to the neon signs of Hong Kong which are an inherent part of the city’s visual heritage."

Both lines and words are constructed instantaneously within the work. The strength of Wong's concept goes further as she draws the links from rappers free styling in reference to their immediate environment to her own environment in Hong Kong. Natalie shares that "Neon signs are an integral part of the urbanized personality of a city and they have this inherent ability to draw the human eye.” Check out her latest work below and spot Kanye West, Jay-Z, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, Drake, Lauryn Hill, Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliot, Nas, Tupac and Biggie Smalls.