Back from a whirlwind trip to Europe, artist Kirk Ke Wang is hard at work on an installation honoring Lue Gim Gong, the Chinese immigrant known as Florida’s “Citrus Wizard.” The project took root close to home. Driving through Oldsmar, where Wang lives, he spotted a street sign bearing an Asian name outside the post office. “I didn’t even know Chinese immigrants lived here, nor his history,” Wang said.
Lue saved Florida’s citrus industry more than a century ago by developing cold-resistant orange hybrids still grown today. His work earned the Silver Wilder Medal from the American Pomological Society and, in 2000, recognition as a Great Floridian by the state. “It means a lot to Asian Americans living here,” Wang said, noting that the immigrant spirit, past and present, is sometimes dismissed or forgotten.
Wang’s installation is a prelude to “The Citrus Wizard’s Journey,” an exhibit that opened in May at Heritage Village in Largo and runs through June 27. Part of the village’s 50th anniversary and America 250 celebrations, the exhibit explores Florida’s immigrant experience through Lue’s contributions. It features documents about the horticulturist from the University of South Florida Libraries and was curated by Quinton Spiaggi, a volunteer research associate at the Palm Harbor Museum.
Inspired by the story, Wang is sculpting Lue alongside a pet rooster and a horse. On June 11, he gathered about 25 volunteers at the Barack Obama Library in St. Petersburg to make Chinese lanterns, which will line the walkway leading to the sculpture at Heritage Village.
Art as activism
Wang is professor emeritus of visual arts at Eckerd College and a member of the board at the Ringling Museum of Art. His dozens of exhibitions and installations have drawn international attention, and a documentary about his life and art is in the works.
“I lived in Shanghai and have been living in Tampa Bay and NYC for almost 40 years,” Wang said. “I focus my art on issues that conflict my experiences with today’s mainstream typecasts, from the standpoint of a diaspora. In my art practice, contents overrule forms and methods. I experiment with a wide range of media, such as painting, sculpture, photography, video, conceptual, performance and installation art. Although oscillating between them, I intend to weave a tapestry of my vision of the world, led by a consistent thread: the fear of inexorable cataclysm.”
His work is meant to spark discussion about the environment, war, poverty, immigration and the human condition. “I used a sculpture/video installation to discuss the dilemma of contemporary life being pulled by forces of mental and physical attractions, in the exhibition ‘Weightlessness’ (Nanjing Museum of China),” Wang said. “I used paintings and electronic sculpture to question human identity/fidelity via EKG heart prints of wounded soldiers in Iraq, in the exhibition ‘Language of Heart’ (Elliott Gallery of Eckerd College). I used 200 sculptures made of toy blankets and performance/videos to stage a ‘suicide’ of animals to protest the consumption of nature by humans, in the exhibition ‘Last Meal’ (Saltcreek Art Space).”
In January and February, Wang took part in “Low Tide / High Root: APIDA Diasporic Perspectives” at the Dunedin Fine Art Center, one of seven Tampa Bay artists with Asian Pacific Islander Desi American backgrounds. Their work reflects a blending of cultures, traditions and technologies, moving between personal stories and collective memory, from reimagined traditional forms to AI-driven animation and pop-culture-inspired narratives.
From design to Disney World and beyond
Wang has worked as a painter, sculptor, photographer, mixed-media artist and educational software developer. As an art director at a design firm, he created projects for the entertainment industry, including Walt Disney World, MGM Studios, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. He taught at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota in the early 1990s before joining Eckerd College in St. Petersburg as a tenured full professor in the fall of 1993.
His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 in New York and the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, and he has won grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Freeman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Asian Network and the Florida Arts Council.
But for now, his focus is the Citrus Wizard.
“I’m so fortunate to have this opportunity ... to create a 3D sculpture project associated with this exhibition,” Wang said. “I’m very excited about that.”
IF YOU GO
The sculpture will be unveiled at Heritage Village’s All American Bash on July 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The family-friendly celebration marks 50 years of Heritage Village alongside the nation’s 250th anniversary. The red-white-and-blue event includes live music from Cassie Jean & The Fireflies, food trucks, a dog costume contest, a reading of the Declaration of Independence at 12:30 p.m., storytime, kids zones, a patriotic photo booth and improv comedy bringing historical postcards to life. Organizers encourage guests to wear red, white and blue.