I’m an artist who works in Jersey City, NJ, and teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

I got my BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1995, and my MFA from Yale in 1997. I freelanced and worked at art galleries for a while after getting my degree, and then started teaching full time in 2005. I teach in the Visual & Critical Studies and Art History departments at SVA. I’ve lived in Jersey City full time since 1997.

I’ve been showing my artwork since 1997. I’ve been in shows at museums and galleries all over the place, including the Drawing Center, Bellwether, BravinLee programs, the Hunterdon Museum, the Warhol Museum, and many others. I’ve been fortunate to be written about in such publications as The New York Times, Art in America, The Philadelphia Inquirer, to name a few.

If you’d like a complete CV including teaching history, or a clean artist’s CV for printing, shoot me an email.

In addition to making art, I’ve also been very involved in local activism and mutual aid organizing in Jersey City and New Jersey.

Artist’s statement

I think it must surprise the casual viewer of my work that I consider my practice to be an extension of Conceptual Art. Given that I use bright colors, textures, figures — all the things that appear to be an anathema to at least the first generation of that movement, I can see the confusion. Sure, there’s text — and often, a lot of it — but there’s also a form of visual pleasure expressed as well as an apparent and genuine love of making things by hand. If there’s a tension that exists between these two spheres, the intellectual and the visual/handmade, I’d like to push the audience to question why that is.

I see my practice as being an ongoing inquiry between art and craft, or between high art forms and (supposedly) lower ones. I create pieces made out of fibers, or photocopied artist’s books, or drawings and hand-pulled prints, but never oil paintings or monumental sculptures. I relentlessly research a variety of issues that I’ve returned to over and over again — Victorian studies, psychology, kitsch, craft theory, feminism, art history, politics — churning out long texts which I incorporate fragments of into my pieces. Some academics research and write for weeks on end and publish papers; I do the same thing and make works of art. I prefer the site of the gallery or museum over that of the academic journal, and the push and pull of engaging more general audiences that come with those spaces.

By engaging with these “lesser” art forms, I seek to move my work away from the overly commercialized US art market and more to a place where my research and writing can roam free (well, free-r, at least). I also like to engage in a practice that asks questions about why hierarchies between artworks still exist, and why some works are more “valuable” and “serious” than others.

Sometimes my work is more personal, and sometimes it’s more playful. Sometimes it’s more visual — incorporating motifs from the Arts & Crafts movement, psychedelic imagery, or comics, to name a few. But always, it comes back to writing and research, and to whatever ideas I’m picking apart at the time. The work appears varied and diverse, as I work across media and styles, but it has a basis to it of intellectual rigor to which I always return.

Amy Wilson
Education

1997 Yale University, New Haven, CT; MFA Sculpture

1995 School of Visual Arts, New York City; BFA Fine Arts

Solo Exhibitions

2018 We lit up the sky, SVA Flatiron Project Space, NYC

2012 We dream of starfish and geodesic domes, BravinLee Programs, NYC

2010 The space between us, University of Mississippi, Oxford

It takes time to turn a space around, Installation at West Thames Park, NYC, sponsored by the Downtown Alliance

It takes time to turn a space around, project space, BravinLee Programs, NYC

2009 There are always such beautiful things…, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ

The Myth of Loneliness, BravinLee Programs, NYC

Please Pay Attention Please, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ 

2006 Brillo Box Outpost (site-specific, commissioned installation), Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh

2005  The Global Appeal of Liberty, Bellwether Gallery, NYC

Group Exhibitions

*denotes catalogue

2021 Longing for something, Morina Foundation, JC, NJ

You might believe you’re there, Girls Club, Ft

Lauderdale, FL

2019  On the Edge of the Wilds, Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, NYC

2018 Our silences did not protect us, Fort Gansevoort, NYC

2017 Ideographs, Pointe Green, Brooklyn, NY

2016 Pink Noise: Flexing the Frequency, Girls’ Club, Miami, FL

2015 Untitled Fair, BravinLee Programs booth, Miami, FL

2014 Space is the Place, BravinLee Programs, NYC

Sargent’s Daughters, Sargent’s Daughters, NYC

2013 The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Allegra LaViola Gallery, NYC

Envision, online exhibition and project by MoreArt, NYC

2012 Canceled, The Center for Book Arts, NYC

Campaign, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, C24 Gallery, NYC

2011 The Influentials, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, Visual Arts Gallery, NYC*

Seven, BravinLee Programs, Miami, FL

2010   It’s Personal, Tomasulo Gallery, Union College, NJ 

2009 Octet, Pera Museum of the Arts, Istanbul, Turkey*

Gallery artists, BravinLee Programs, NYC

Pulse Fair, BravinLee Programs Booth, NYC and Miami, FL

2008 Recent Editions, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2007 Ink Fair, Miami – Diane Villani Booth

Group show, Grolier Club, NYC

The Print Fair, Diane Villani Editions booth, NYC

2006 Choplogic, Bellwether Gallery, NYC

Tabletop, Josee Bienvenue Gallery, NYC

The F Word, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA

Only the Paranoid Survive, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY

Tropicalisms, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ

Still Missing: Beauty Absent Social Life*, School of Visual Arts Museum, NYC. Travels to the Westpoint Center for Contemporary Art, CT

Headlines, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ

Among the Trees, Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ

The Armory Show - Bellwether and Diane Villani Editions booths

2005 Greater New York, PS1, Queens, NY*

The Most Splendid Apocalypse, PPOW, NYC

Disasters of War, Wesleyan University, CT

The Armory Show, Bellwether booth, NYC

NADA Fair, Bellwether booth, Miami, FL

Fine Line, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles

2004 Talespinning, The Drawing Center, NYC*

Hello Chelsea, Bellwether, NYC 

2003 NADA, Bellwether Booth, Miami, FL

Scope Art LA, Bucheon Gallery Booth

Art Chicago 03, Diane Villani Editions Booth

Brave New World, OIA, New York, NY

Transgressing Boundaries, Paint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2002 Into the Woods, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

The June Show, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco, CA

INBOX vol. V, Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York, NY

Annual, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ*

2001 Fast Forward Miami, Bellwether booth, Miami, FL

Jeanne Lorenz/Sarah Bedford/Amy Wilson, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY

2000. Kosmobiologie, curated by Nancy Chaiken, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY

Flat File, Bellwether, Brooklyn, NY _The Meat Market Art Fair, Bellwether booth, New York, NY

The UFO Show, curated by Barry Blinderman and Bill Conger, University of Illinois at   Normal/Bloomington.  Travels to University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, Pine Bluff; State University of New York, Pottsdam.*_

INBOX vol. II - IV, Sleep Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

1999 The Artist in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY* 

Artists Books and Multiples '99, Brooke Alexander Editions, NYC 

Sightings, Gwenda Jay/Addington Gallery, Chicago, IL

1996 Curve, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT

Press

2020 Rosenberg, Amy S. “For $20, this New Jersey Artist will send you art in the mail,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20th

“Masks for all?” The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, April 2

2017 Donohue, Brian. “Positively New Jersey,” News 12, December 5th

Lindgren, Michael. “Craft Faire,” medium.com

2016 Jones, Marya. “Cut and paste: zines about women musicians,” Bitch media, May 25

2014 Celembast, Robin. “Avant-garde Quilt Explosion,” ArtNews online edition, January

2012 Carroll, Brendan. “A wondrously naïve universe,” Hyperallergic, March 20

Carroll, Brendan. “Painter’s Hard-nosed Observations About Art, Multiple Income Streams, and Living Within One’s Means,” Art21 Magazine

Fateman, Joana. “Campaign,” Artforum Picks, January 27th

Howard, Christopher. “The show must go on: Canceled,” The L Magazine, May 23

Miller, Leanne. “Look out,” Art in America website, March 2

Vartanian, Hrag. “The wonderous world of Amy Wilson,” Hyperallergic, February 17

2011 Carroll, Brendan. “This is Jersey City: An Insider’s Guide,” September 2

2010 Muse Magazine, Amy Wilson, Summer

2009 Genocchio, Ben. “An Imagination Revealed with Text Bubbles.” The New York Times, January 18

Biesenbach, Klaus. Henry Darger, Prestel Publishing, NYC

2008 “Amy Wilson,” The New Yorker, Oct 13th issue

2007 “On the long afterlife of not getting along,” Artlies, September

2006 Falkenstein, Michelle. “The Artist As Tree Hugger,” The New York Times, March 26

Genocchio, Ben. “The Medium is the Message and Vice Versa,” The New York Times, May 28

2005 Baker, RC. "Voice Choices." Village Voice, April 23.

Boucher, Brian. “Amy Wilson.” Art in America review section, September.

Cohen, David. "Gallery Going." New York Sun, May 12.

Eleey, David. "Greater New York." Frieze, May.

Feiden, Douglas. "Draw the Line, Now!" The NY Daily News, cover story, June 24.

Feiden, Douglas, and Joe Mahoney. "Nutty 9/11 Art Nixed" The NY Daily News, cover story, June 25.

Genocchio, Benjamin. "Meet Grandma Moses With an Attitude." The New York Times, May 8.

Halle, Howard. “Showdown at Ground Zero,” Time Out NY, August 4-10

Johnson, Ken. "Amy Wilson, The Global Appeal of Liberty" The New York Times, May 6.

Kerr, Merrily. "Amy Wilson, The Global Appeal of Liberty." Time Out New York May 5-11.

Leech, Gwyneth. “Keeping America Safe From the Arts.” Art New England, September.

"Amy Wilson", The New Yorker, April 27. 

2004 Boucher, Brian. "I realize this is all insanity." Thing.net. Glueck, Grace. "Working Words Into Images, Artists Become Storytellers," The New York     Times, Sept. 24. 

Holliday, Frank. "Gallery Hops the River Into Chelsea, " Gay City News, June 10

2002 Pollack, Barbara. "Art on the Waterfront," ArtNews, April issue, pg 113. 

Garnett, Joy. ed. Newsgrist splash page. 

Hirsch, Faye. "INBOX, vol. V," Dec.  issue, Art on Paper, Working Proof section.

2001 Cotter, Holland. "Sarah Bedford, Jeanne Lorenz, Amy Wilson," The New York Times, March 16.

2000 Hirsch, Faye. "INBOX," Art on Paper, March/April issue, Working Proof section. 

Rootes, Dave. "Art Break: Beam Me Up," The Colorado Springs Independent, December 14 - 20. "Kosmobiologie," The New Yorker, July 10 issue, review section.

Collections:

Yale Art Galleries, Harvard Business School, New York Public Library, Debevoise & Plimpton Hong Kong, and others.