Fred Wilson (artist)

An alumnus of Music & Art High School in New York, Wilson received a BFA from SUNY Purchase in 1976, where he was the only black student in his program.{{Cite web |url=http://renabranstengallery.com/artists/articles/fred-wilson/venice-history-by-way-of-africa |title=Rena Bransten Gallery articles |access-date=2016-02-08 |archive-date=2019-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414010238/https://renabranstengallery.com/artists/articles/fred-wilson/venice-history-by-way-of-africa |url-status=dead }} While studying Wilson worked as a guard at the Neuberger Museum.Berger, M (2001). Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 1979 - 2000. University of Maryland. p. 33. Between 1978 and 1980, he worked as an artist in East Harlem as part of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act's (CETA) employment of artists.Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience, Oxford University Press, 2005

He says that he no longer has a strong desire to make things with his hands. "I get everything that satisfies my soul," he says, "from bringing together objects that are in the world, manipulating them, working with spatial arrangements, and having things presented in the way I want to see them."[https://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wilson/index.html PBS art:21 biography.]

An installation artist and political activist, Wilson's subject is social justice and his medium is museology. In the 1970s, he worked as a free-lance museum educator for the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Craft Museum. Beginning in the late 1980s, Wilson used his insider skills to create "Rooms with a View", a series of "mock museums" that address how museums consciously or unwittingly reinforce racist beliefs and behaviors.Stein, Judith E. "Sins of Omission." Art in America, October 1993, pp. 110–115. This strategy, which Wilson refers to as "a trompe l'oeil of museum space,"{{Cite news|url=http://www.art21.org/texts/fred-wilson/interview-fred-wilson-museums-and-collections|title=Fred Wilson: Museums and Collections|work= Art21|access-date=2017-01-28}} has increasingly become the focus of his life's work.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T2091124|title=Wilson, Fred|last=Fitzpatrick|first=Tracy|website=Oxford Art Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=2017-01-17}}

In 1987, as part of his outdoor "Platform" series, Wilson created No Noa Noa, Portrait of a History of Tahiti, designed to illustrate "how Western societies turn Third World peoples into exotic sideshow creatures to entertain and titillate but who are not to be taken seriously."{{Cite book|title=African Americans in the Visual Arts|last=Otfinoski|first=Steven|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-0816078400|pages=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericans0000otfi_m3y2/page/229 229]|url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericans0000otfi_m3y2/page/229}}

In his 1992 seminal work co-organized with the Contemporary Museum Baltimore, Mining the Museum, Wilson reshuffled the Maryland Historical Society's collection to highlight the history of Native and African Americans in Maryland. In 1994, Wilson continued in this vein with Insight: In Site: In Sight: Incite in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where, according to art historian Richard J. Powell, his "re-positioning of historical objects and manipulation of exhibition labels, lighting, and other display techniques helped reveal aspects of the site's tragic African-American past that (because of the conspiratorial forces of time, ignorance, and racism) had largely become invisible."{{Cite book|title=Black art and culture in the 20th century|author=Powell, Richard J.|date=1997-01-01|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=0500202958|oclc=36243884|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/blackartculturei00powe}}

In 2001, Wilson was the subject of a retrospective, Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979–2000, organized by Maurice Berger for the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The show traveled to numerous venues, including the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Berkeley Museum of Art, Blaffer Gallery (University of Houston), Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY), The Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts, Chicago Cultural Center, Studio Museum in Harlem. For the 2003 Venice Biennale, Wilson created a multi-media installation that borrowed its title from a line in Othello. His elaborate Venice work "Speak of Me as I Am" focused on representations of Africans in Venetian culture.

In 2007 Fred Wilson was invited to be a part of the Indianapolis, Indiana, Cultural trail. Wilson proposed to redo the sole African American depicted in the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis. The African American represents a recently freed slave reaching up to lady liberty. Wilson planned on using a scan of the African American to make an entirely new work, which would give the African American a more proud and strong posture, holding a flag composed of all of the African countries' flags.{{cite web |url=http://www.fredwilsonindy.org/aboutproject.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-01-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208013424/http://www.fredwilsonindy.org/aboutproject.html |archive-date=2012-02-08 }} The proposed work was entitled, E Pluribus Unum, and was met with much controversy, eventually leading to the project's rejection.

In 2009, Wilson was awarded the Cheek Medal{{Cite web|url=https://scdbwiki.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index.php?title=Cheek_Medal|title = Special Collections Research Center Knowledgebase}} by William & Mary's Muscarelle Museum of Art. The Cheek Medal is a national arts award given by The College of William & Mary to those who have contributed significantly to the field of museum, performing or visual arts.

2011 saw the publication of Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader by Ridinghouse, edited by Doro Globus. An anthology of critical texts about and interviews with the artist, this publication focuses on the artist's pivotal exhibitions and projects, and includes a wide range of significant texts that mark the critical reception of Wilson's work over the last two decades.{{cite web|title=Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader|url=http://www.ridinghouse.co.uk/publications/53/|publisher=Ridinghouse}}

File:Artemis - Bast, 1992, Fred Wilson at BMA 2022.jpeg in 2022]]

Wilson's unique artist approach is to examine, question, and deconstruct the traditional display of art and artifacts in museums. With the use of new wall labels, sounds, lighting, and non-traditional pairings of objects, he leads viewers to recognize that changes in context create changes in meaning. Wilson's juxtaposition of evocative objects forces the viewer to question the biases and limitations of cultural institutions and how they have shaped the interpretation of historical truth, artistic value, and the language of display. According to Wilson, "Museums ignore and often deny the other meanings [of objects]. In my experience it is because if an alternate meaning is not the subject of the exhibition or the focus of the museum, it is considered unimportant by the museum."{{Cite journal|last=Graham|first=Mark A.|date=September 2007|title=An Interview with Artist Fred Wilson|journal=Journal of Museum Education|volume=32|issue=3|pages=209–217|doi=10.1080/10598650.2007.11510571|s2cid=191544890|issn=1059-8650}} Wilson uses these objects to analyze the representation of race in museums and to examine the power and privileges of cultural institutions.{{Cite book|title=Subject to display : reframing race in contemporary installation art|last=A.|first=González, Jennifer|date=2008|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262072861|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=75390017}}

For example, for his installation at the 2003 Venice Biennale he employed a tourist to pretend to be an African street vendor selling fake designer bags — in fact his own designs. He also incorporated "blackamoors", sculptures of black people in the role of servants, into the show.[http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_9014/ The Shock of the Familiar], New York Metro, 2003. Such figures were often used as stands for lights. Wilson placed his wooden blackamoors carrying acetylene torches and fire extinguishers. He noted that such figures are so common in Venice that few people notice them, stating, "they are in hotels everywhere in Venice...which is great, because all of a sudden you see them everywhere. I wanted it to be visible, this whole world which sort of just blew up for me."

Mining the Museum was an exhibition created by Fred Wilson held from April 4, 1992, to February 28, 1993, at the Maryland Historical Society.

Background

The title of the exhibition refers to how Wilson extracted and unearthed objects from the Maryland Historical Society collections to create this exhibition.The purpose of the exhibition was to address the biases museums have, often omitting or under-representing oppressed peoples and focusing on "prominent white men".Ginsberg, Elisabeth. [http://beautifultrouble.org/case/mining-the-museum/ "Mining the Museum".] Beautiful Trouble. Beautiful Trouble, n.d. Web. November 11, 2014. Wilson took the existing museum's collection and reshuffled them to highlight the history of African-American and Native American Marylanders. This reassembly created a new viewpoint of colonization, slavery and abolition through the use of satire and irony.

Artifacts

Wilson juxtaposed historically important artifacts with each other to address the injustices in history and the injustices of not being properly exhibited. The entrance of the exhibition displayed three busts of important individuals: Napoleon, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay displayed on pedestals. To the left of these busts were empty black pedestals with the names of three important, overlooked African American Marylanders: Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, and Harriet Tubman. Arranged in the center of these pedestals is a silver-plated copper globe with the word "Truth" inscribed on it in a case.{{Cite journal|last=Frankel|first=Noralee|date=July 1993|title=Mining the Museum Fred Wilson|journal=The Public Historian|volume=15|issue=3|pages=105–108|doi=10.2307/3378741|jstor=3378741}}

Wilson extracted paintings from the eighteenth century and nineteenth century featuring African Americans from the MHS collection. Within this collection Wilson renamed the paintings in order to shift the focus towards African Americans in them. One of the oil paintings titled "Country Life" was renamed "Frederick Serving Fruit" in order to emphasize and underline the young African American that was serving "well-dressed whites at a picnic". Other paintings featuring slave children were paired with audiotape recordings that played on a loop in which visitors were able to hear these children in the paintings ask various poignant questions. Wilson used these paintings to force visitors to recognize how the depiction of African Americans and their invisibility in portrayals of American life is "paradoxical".

The installation titled "metalwork" arranged ornate silverware with slave shackles to address that the prosperity of one could not have been achieved without the other.

Similarly, "Cabinet Making" addresses more subjugation by having antique chairs gathered around and facing an authentic whipping post, incorrectly reported by several publications to have been used on slaves. In fact, the post had been used to punish wife-beaters in the Baltimore City jail.Maryland Historical Society Library Department. [http://www.mdhs.org/underbelly/2013/10/10/return-of-the-whipping-post-mining-the-museum/ "Return of the Whipping Post: Mining the Museum"]. Maryland Historical Society. Underbelly, n.d. Web. October 13, 2013. However, these false assumptions helped bolster Wilson's idea that the exhibit was "charged by what you bring to it." Pieces such as "Cabinet Making" encouraged visitors to interpret the works however they saw it, to think critically and acquire a new perspective. Other works included cigar-store Indians turned away from visitors, a KKK mask in a baby carriage, a hunting rifle with runaway slave posters and a black chandelier hung in the museum's neoclassical pavilion made for the exhibition.

Impact

The exhibition was successful in that it made visitors more historically conscious of the racism that is an integral part of American history. ""Mining the Museum" worked because it was suggestive rather than didactic, provocative rather than moralizing" More than 55,000 people viewed Wilson's exhibit and helped him create other similar exhibitions around the United States. Critics would coin this new type of work as "museumist art".Garfield, Donald. [https://www.msu.edu/course/ha/452/wilsoninterview.htm "MAKING THE MUSEUM MINE: AN INTERVIEW WITH FRED WILSON"], Museum News, May 1993: 47-49+90. Web. November 11, 2014.

Wilson represented the United States at the 50th Venice Biennale, staging the solo exhibition Speak of Me as I Am (2003) in the American pavilion. A series of works was a reworking of Shakespeare's Othello that consisted of various objects such as mirrors and chandeliers that were used to comment on the text. These works have been extended on in the exhibition, Fred Wilson: Sculptures, Paintings, and Installations, 2004–2014. These objects are made of black Murano glass, which indicates how Wilson has transferred the context of Othello into a world where race is not ignored and is instead is a crucial central focus.{{Cite journal|last=Erickson|first=Peter|date=2016|title=Concluding Othello: Contrasting Endings by Shakespeare and Fred Wilson|journal=Shakespeare Bulletin|volume=34|issue=2|pages=277–293|doi=10.1353/shb.2016.0030|s2cid=194532816|issn=1931-1427}}

Afro Kismet, a mixed-media installation also included in the exhibition, focused on issues and representations of race in Venice, specifically the history of black people in Venice. The installation consisted of prints, paintings, and other artifacts from the Pera Museum collections and underlined the "discarded" or "hidden" history of African people in the Ottoman Empire.{{Cite journal|last=Erel|first=Tuçe|date=2018-09-02|title=Istanbul Biennial 2018: A Good Neighbour|journal=Journal of Visual Art Practice|volume=17|issue=2–3|pages=227–229|doi=10.1080/14702029.2018.1435058|s2cid=150197137|issn=1470-2029}}

From 1988 to 1992, Wilson served on the board of directors at Artists Space in TriBeCa, New York.{{Cite book|title=St. James Guide to Black Artists|publisher=St. James Press|year=1997|isbn=1-55862-220-9|location=Detroit, MI|pages=579–581}} He currently serves on the board of trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Wilson co-chaired (with Naomi Beckwith) the jury that chose the winners of the Rome Prize for the 2023–24 cycle.Maximilíano Durón (24 April 2023), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/rome-prize-2024-dread-scott-nao-bustamante-1234665370/Seven Artists Win Coveted Rome Prize, Including Dread Scott and Nao Bustamante]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ARTnews.

Wilson has staged a large number of solo shows and exhibitions in the United States and internationally. His notable solo shows include Primitivism: High & Low (1991), Metro Pictures Gallery, New York;{{cite web |title=Fred Wilson |url=https://www.metropictures.com/exhibitions/fred-wilson |website=MetroPictures |publisher=Metro Pictures Gallery |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127115109/https://www.metropictures.com/exhibitions/fred-wilson |archive-date=27 November 2022 |url-status=live}} Mining the Museum (1992-1993), Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, and Contemporary Museum Baltimore;{{cite web |last1=Albot |first1=Damon |title=Return of the Whipping Post: Mining the Museum |url=https://www.mdhistory.org/return-of-the-whipping-post-mining-the-museum/ |website=MDHistory |date=10 October 2013 |publisher=Maryland Center for History and Culture |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728013621/https://www.mdhistory.org/return-of-the-whipping-post-mining-the-museum/ |archive-date=28 July 2021 |url-status=live}} Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 1979-2000 (2001-2003), originating at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, Baltimore;{{cite web |title=Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979-2000 |url=https://cadvc.umbc.edu/fred-wilson-objects-and-installations-1979-2000/ |website=CADVC |publisher=University of Maryland, Baltimore County |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704033607/https://cadvc.umbc.edu/fred-wilson-objects-and-installations-1979-2000/ |archive-date=4 July 2022 |url-status=live}} Speak of Me as I Am (2003), American pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale;{{cite web |last1=Harris |first1=Lindsay |title=Re-focus: Fred Wilson at the 50th Venice Biennale |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2003/07/artseen/re-focus-fred-wilson-at-the-50th-venice-biennale |website=The Brooklyn Rail |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227181134/https://brooklynrail.org/2003/07/artseen/re-focus-fred-wilson-at-the-50th-venice-biennale |archive-date=27 December 2022 |date=Summer 2003 |url-status=live}} and Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011 (2012-2013), Cleveland Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011 |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/fred-wilson-works-2004%E2%80%932011 |website=ClevelandArt |publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811014344/https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/fred-wilson-works-2004%E2%80%932011 |archive-date=11 August 2022 |url-status=live}}

He has also participated in many group exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (1993);{{cite web |title=1993 Whitney Biennial |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/biennial-1993 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926054147/https://whitney.org/exhibitions/biennial-1993 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |url-status=live}} Liverpool Biennial (1999);{{cite web |title=Fred Wilson |url=https://www.biennial.com/1999/exhibition/artists/fred-wilson |website=Biennial |publisher=Liverpool Biennial |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704123232/https://www.biennial.com/1999/exhibition/artists/fred-wilson |archive-date=4 July 2022 |url-status=live}} Glasstress (2009, 2011);{{cite web |title=Fred Wilson |url=http://glasstress.org/my-product/fred-wilson/ |website=Glasstress |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227181050/http://glasstress.org/my-product/fred-wilson/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and the NGV Triennial (2020).{{cite web |title=NGV Triennial 2020 |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/triennial-2020/#artists |website=NGV |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224055919/https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/triennial-2020/ |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}

{{Div col|colwidth=40em}}

• Colonial Collection (1990), Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina{{cite web |title=Colonial Collection |url=https://emuseum.nasher.duke.edu/objects/14832/colonial-collection |website=Nasher |publisher=Duke University |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227053110/https://emuseum.nasher.duke.edu/objects/14832/colonial-collection |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Guarded View (1991), Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Guarded View |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/11433 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227045054/https://whitney.org/collection/works/11433 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Addiction Display (1991), Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida{{cite web|title=Addiction Display|url=https://www.artsy.net/artwork/fred-wilson-addiction-display |website=Artsy |access-date=11 August 2023}}
• Queen Esther/Harriet Tubman (1992), Jewish Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Queen Esther/Harriet Tubman |url=https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/3651-queen-esther-harriet-tubman |website=Jewish Museum |access-date=27 December 2022}}
• Untitled (1992), Baltimore Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Untitled |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/38664/untitled |website=ArtBMA |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618020752/https://collection.artbma.org/objects/38664/untitled |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Untitled (1992), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts{{cite web |title=Untitled |url=https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/343542 |website=Harvard Art Museums |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227044736/https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/343542 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Grey Area (1993), Tate, London{{cite web |title=Grey Area |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-grey-area-t13632 |website=Tate |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808173051/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-grey-area-t13632 |archive-date=8 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Mine/Yours (1994), Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Mine/Yours |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/10402 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227045158/https://whitney.org/collection/works/10402 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Atlas (1995), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York{{cite web |title=Atlas |url=https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/atlas |website=StudioMuseum |date=18 December 2018 |publisher=Studio Museum in Harlem |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227055112/https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/atlas |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Me and It (1995), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Me and It |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2013.85.A-NN/ |website=SFMoMA |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227054835/https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2013.85.A-NN/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Speak of Me as I Am: Chandelier Mori (2003), High Museum of Art, Atlanta{{cite web |title=Speak of Me as I Am: Chandelier Mori |url=https://high.org/collections/chandelier-mori-speak-of-me-as-i-am/ |website=High |publisher=High Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227044050/https://high.org/collections/chandelier-mori-speak-of-me-as-i-am/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Untitled (Venice Biennale) (2003), Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, Illinois;{{cite web |title=Untitled (Venice Biennale) |url=https://blockmuseum.emuseum.com/objects/3198/untitled-venice-biennale |website=BlockMuseum |publisher=Northwestern University |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227061431/https://blockmuseum.emuseum.com/objects/3198/untitled-venice-biennale |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts{{cite web |title=Untitled |url=https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2003.34 |website=Five Colleges Museums |publisher=Smith College |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227184659/https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2003.34 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• The Wanderer (2003), Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California{{cite web |title=The Wanderer |url=https://collection.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/c94ef768-ee88-476a-97ef-fdee7858c6e6 |website=BAMPFA |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227043526/https://collection.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/c94ef768-ee88-476a-97ef-fdee7858c6e6 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Arise! (2004), British Museum, London;{{cite web |title=Arise! |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2012-7078-4 |website=British Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227050611/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2012-7078-4 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Museum of Modern Art, New York;{{cite web |title=Arise! |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/98825 |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524094935/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/98825 |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-status=live}} National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;{{cite web |title=Arise! |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137107.html |website=NGA |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227050533/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137107.html |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio{{cite web |title=Arise |url=https://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/58793/arise |website=ToledoMuseum |publisher=Toledo Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022}}
• Convocation (2004), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;{{cite web |title=Convocation |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/813637 |website=MetMuseum |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227184457/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/813637 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;{{cite web |title=Convocation |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137109.html |website=NGA |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227184624/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137109.html |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio{{cite web |title=Convocation |url=http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/58794/convocation |website=Toledo Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227184543/http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/58794/convocation |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us are Looking at the Stars (2004), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.;{{cite web |title=We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us are Looking at the Stars |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137112.html |website=NGA |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227054336/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.137112.html |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Studio Museum in Harlem, New York;{{cite web |title=We Are All In the Gutter, but Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars |url=https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/we-are-all-gutter-some-us-are-looking-stars |website=StudioMuseum |date=14 May 2020 |publisher=Studio Museum in Harlem |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227054616/https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/we-are-all-gutter-some-us-are-looking-stars |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio{{cite web |title=We Are All in The Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking At The Stars |url=http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/58796/we-are-all-in-the-gutter-but-some-of-us-are-looking-at-the |website=ToledoMuseum |publisher=Toledo Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227054713/http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/58796/we-are-all-in-the-gutter-but-some-of-us-are-looking-at-the |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• X (2005), Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California;{{cite web |title=X from Exit Art Portfolio |url=https://collection.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/8b82d20f-b3d2-4eeb-b1fe-1e018bbc6b82 |website=BAMPFA |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227051204/https://collection.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/8b82d20f-b3d2-4eeb-b1fe-1e018bbc6b82 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;{{cite web |title=X |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/855685 |website=MetMuseum |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227184131/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/855685 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Project X |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/41999 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705150113/https://whitney.org/collection/works/41999 |archive-date=5 July 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Pssst! (2005), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Pssst! |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.168792.html |website=NGA |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227044842/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.168792.html |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Dark Day, Dark Night (2006), Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina{{cite web |title=Dark Day, Dark Night |url=https://emuseum.nasher.duke.edu/objects/14867/dark-day-dark-night |website=Nasher |publisher=Duke University |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227053212/https://emuseum.nasher.duke.edu/objects/14867/dark-day-dark-night |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• The Mete of the Muse (2006), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;{{cite web |title=The Mete of the Muse |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/133409/ |website=NGV |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227052843/https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/133409/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and New Orleans Museum of Art{{cite web |title=The Mete of the Muse |url=https://noma.org/collection/the-mete-of-the-muse/ |website=NOMA |publisher=New Orleans Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227052806/https://noma.org/collection/the-mete-of-the-muse/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• The Ominous Glut (2006), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri{{cite web |title=The Ominous Glut |url=https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/54196/the-ominous-glut |website=Nelson-Atkins |publisher=Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227053313/https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/54196/the-ominous-glut |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Ota Benga (2008), Tate, London{{cite web |title=Ota Benga |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-ota-benga-t13633 |website=Tate |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706222225/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-ota-benga-t13633 |archive-date=6 July 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Flag (2009), Tate, London{{cite web |title=Flag |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-flag-118813 |website=Tate |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021015400/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-flag-118813 |archive-date=21 October 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Iago's Mirror (2009), Des Moines Art Center, Iowa;{{cite web |title=Iago's Mirror |url=https://emuseum.desmoinesartcenter.org/objects/47405/iagos-mirror |website=Des Moines Art Center |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227044353/https://emuseum.desmoinesartcenter.org/objects/47405/iagos-mirror |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;{{cite web |title=Iago's Mirror |url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/552622/iagos-mirror |website=MFA |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227045853/https://collections.mfa.org/objects/552622/iagos-mirror |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio{{cite web |title=Iago's Mirror |url=https://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/70629/iagos-mirror |website=ToledoMuseum |publisher=Toledo Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221164451/https://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/70629/iagos-mirror |archive-date=21 February 2020 |url-status=live}}
• To Die Upon a Kiss (2011), Cleveland Museum of Art;{{cite web |title=To Die Upon a Kiss |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.115 |website=ClevelandArt |publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227043830/https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.115 |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York;{{cite web |title=To Die Upon a Kiss |url=https://www.cmog.org/artwork/die-upon-kiss |website=CMOG |publisher=Corning Museum of Glass |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227062522/https://www.cmog.org/artwork/die-upon-kiss |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;{{cite web |title=To Die Upon a Kiss |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/116940/to-die-upon-a-kiss |website=MFAH |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004012826/https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/116940/to-die-upon-a-kiss |archive-date=4 October 2021 |url-status=live}} Museum of Modern Art, New York;{{cite web |title=To Die Upon a Kiss |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/404392 |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130213752/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/404392 |archive-date=30 November 2021 |url-status=live}} and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne{{cite web |title=To Die Upon a Kiss |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/141179/ |website=NGV |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227052932/https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/141179/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• LIBERATION (2012), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio{{cite web |title=LIBERATION |url=https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/37728/liberation |website=Allen Art Collection |publisher=Oberlin College |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227051610/https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/37728/liberation |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• I Saw Othello's Visage in His Mind (2013), Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York;{{cite web |title=I Saw Othello's Visage in His Mind |url=https://www.cmog.org/artwork/i-saw-othellos-visage-his-mind |website=CMOG |publisher=Corning Museum of Glass |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227062607/https://www.cmog.org/artwork/i-saw-othellos-visage-his-mind |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=I Saw Othello's Visage in His Mind |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/i-saw-othellos-visage-his-mind-114139 |website=SAAM |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516022513/https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/i-saw-othellos-visage-his-mind-114139 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Iago's Desdemona (2013), Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire{{cite web |title=Iago's Desdemona |url=http://collections.currier.org/objects-1/info/15850?sort=0 |website=Currier |publisher=Currier Museum of Art |access-date=27 December 2022}}
• Act V. Scene II—Exeunt Omnes (2014), Wichita Art Museum, Kansas{{cite web |title=Act V. Scene II—Exeunt Omnes |url=https://wichitaartmuseum.org/our-collection/collection/act-v-scene-ii-exeunt-omnes/ |website=WAM |publisher=Wichita Art Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227055531/https://wichitaartmuseum.org/our-collection/collection/act-v-scene-ii-exeunt-omnes/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Grinding Souls (2016), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio{{cite web |title=Grinding Souls |url=https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/37921/grinding-souls |website=Allen Art Collection |publisher=Oberlin College |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227051705/https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/37921/grinding-souls |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• The Way the Moon's in Love with the Dark (2017), Denver Art Museum{{cite web |title=The Way the Moon's in Love with the Dark |url=https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2017.207a-j |website=Denver Art Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227043925/https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2017.207a-j |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Mother (2022), LaGuardia Airport Terminal C, New York{{cite web |title=A New Way to Travel: Delta Airlines X Queens Museum |url=https://queensmuseum.org/exhibition/a-new-way-to-travel-delta-x-queens-museum-at-laguardia-airport/ |website=Queens Museum |access-date=27 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227172438/https://queensmuseum.org/exhibition/a-new-way-to-travel-delta-x-queens-museum-at-laguardia-airport/ |archive-date=27 December 2022 |url-status=live}}

{{Div col end}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [http://thepacegallery.com The Pace Gallery]
• [https://art21.org/artist/fred-wilson/ Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips] from PBS series Art:21 -- Art in the 21st-century - Season 3 (2005).
• [https://collections.artsmia.org/search/%22Fred%20Wilson%22 Fred Wilson at the Minneapolis Institute or Art], Minneapolis, MN

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Fred}}

Category:1954 births

Category:Living people

Category:American printmakers

Category:African-American contemporary artists

Category:American contemporary artists

Category:Institutional Critique artists

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:State University of New York at Purchase alumni

Category:Artists from the Bronx

Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni

Category:Trustees of museums

Category:Decolonial artists

Category:African-American printmakers

Category:21st-century American artists

Category:21st-century African-American artists

Category:20th-century American artists

Category:20th-century African-American artists

Category:Museum educators