Fred Wilson (artist)
[1] Wilson challenges colonial assumptions on history, culture, and race – encouraging viewers to consider the social and historical narratives that represent the western canon.
[4] 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.
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.
Wilson proposed to redo the sole African American depicted in the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis.
[16] 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.
"[19] Mining the Museum was an exhibition created by Fred Wilson held from April 4, 1992, to February 28, 1993, at the Maryland Historical Society.
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.
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.
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.
[23] 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.
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.
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.
His notable solo shows include Primitivism: High & Low (1991), Metro Pictures Gallery, New York;[28] Mining the Museum (1992-1993), Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, and Contemporary Museum Baltimore;[29] Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations 1979-2000 (2001-2003), originating at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, Baltimore;[30] Speak of Me as I Am (2003), American pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale;[31] and Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011 (2012-2013), Cleveland Museum of Art[32] He has also participated in many group exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (1993);[33] Liverpool Biennial (1999);[34] Glasstress (2009, 2011);[35] and the NGV Triennial (2020).
