Win Ng

Win "Winfred" Ng (April 13, 1936 – September 6, 1991) was a Chinese American artist, entrepreneur, and decorative designer. Ng was known for working as a ceramist, sculptor, metal worker, industrial designer, painter and illustrator, but best known as the co-founder of the groundbreaking San Francisco based department store Taylor & Ng and his commercial ceramics work under the same name.

His artwork is in the collections of the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Art and Design (MAD) and the De Young Museum.

Early life Ng was born in Chinatown, San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, Fook On Ng and Kow Yuan Ng. As a teenager he worked under ceramic artist and author, Jade Snow Wong.

He studied at Saint Mary's Academy, City College of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University. After serving in the United States Army he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1959.

His early career as a ceramicist focused on abstract work influenced by Peter Voulkos and resulted in a one-man show in 1958 at the Michow Gallery in New York City. From 1958 to 1965, Ng worked as a gallery artist, producing abstract ceramics sculptures. By the 1970s Ng had seven one-man shows to his credit in Paris, New York, Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco.

Taylor & Ng

Part of Ng's 1970s mural at BART Orinda station, photo taken in 2020. Ng met artist Spaulding Taylor and shifted his focus toward utilitarian and functional illustration and design work.

Taylor & Ng was founded during 1965 and, with the addition of Win Ng's brother, Norman Ng, as president, grew from a small ceramics shop on Howard Street (in San Francisco) into a major producer and retailer of housewares and owning a multi-level emporium shop at Embarcadero Center. Ng's was represented posthumously by the Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco until the gallery closed in 2011.

Legacy Ng's 1968 colorful, ceramic tile mural illustrating science is located at the Maxine Hall Health Center in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. This mural was produced by the San Francisco Art Commission.

In April 2005, the Chinese Historical Society of America in collaboration with the Queer Cultural Center held a retrospective of Ng's work under the title of "The Art of Win Ng" as part of the National Queer Arts Festival 2005.