Episode 42: Fred wilson tuesday, march 19th, 2024
Fred Wilson Photo Heratch Ekmekjian
Fred Wilson (b. 1954, Bronx, New York) challenges assumptions of history, culture, race, and conventions of display with his work. By reframing objects and cultural symbols, he alters traditional interpretations, encouraging viewers to reconsider social and historical narratives.
Since his groundbreaking and historically significant exhibition Mining the Museum (1992) at the Maryland Historical Society, Wilson has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, including the retrospective Objects and Installations 1979–2000, which was organized by the Center for Art and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Wilson’s work is held in over forty public collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Arts; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Jewish Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Tate Modern, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
In 2003, Wilson represented the United States at the 50th Venice Biennale with the solo exhibition Speak of Me as I Am. His many accolades include the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius” Grant (1999); the Alain Locke Award from The Friends of African and African American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts (2013); a Lifetime Achievement Award, Howard University, Washington, D.C. (2017); and an Art of Change fellowship from the Ford Foundation (2017).
Wilson has served on the Board of Trustees for The American Academy in Rome, Creative Capital, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He recently created a permanent outdoor installation for the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC. In 2021 he was commissioned to create a three-story site-specific installation titled “Mother” in the Delta Terminal at LaGuardia airport, NYC.