Fred Wilson

Fred Wilson is a conceptual artist whose work investigates museological, cultural, and historical issues, which are largely overlooked or neglected by museums and cultural institutions. Since his groundbreaking exhibition Mining the Museum (1992) at the Maryland Historical Society, Wilson has been the subject of more than 40 solo exhibitions around the globe, 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.

His work has been exhibited extensively in museums including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Allen Memorial Museum at Oberlin College, Ohio; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Institute of Jamaica, W.I.; the Museum of World Cultures, Sweden; the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College; the British Museum; and the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His work can be found in several public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Long Museum, Shanghai; the Tate Modern in London; and National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Wilson presented his exhibition Afro Kismet at the 2017 Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, which traveled to London, New York and Los Angeles.

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. He represented the U.S. at the Cairo Biennale (1992) and Venice Biennale (2003). His many accolades include the prestigious MacArthur Foundation’s ​“Genius” Grant (1999); the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (2006); the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change fellowship (2018); Brandeis University’s Creative Arts Award (2019); and the 2024 Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.

Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio