Rick E Wilson

 

 

 

 

Artist Resume

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Education: 

2008  B.A. Sculpture, Spanish minor, University of Colorado at Denver 

 

Additional Education/Activities:

2013    Member and active student, Student Arts League of Denver

Member of the Denver Art Museum

 

Private Collections:

                        Robert Anderson, Denver, CO

                        Nathan Warren, Denver, CO

                        Michael & Mindy Besaw, Cody, WY

                        Liza Hubble, Denver, CO

                        Ronald & Mary Serpaio, Palm Harbor, FL

                        Kerry & Paula McKeon, Washington, D.C.

                        Derek Penny, Denver, CO

                        Adam Dela Pena, Wheat Ridge, CO

                        University of Colorado, Denver, CO

 

Exhibitions:

​

2015    "8 Minutes 20 Seconds" Solo Show, Mad Greens @ the Denver Art Museum

2015    "Prism Annual Invitational" Prism Studios, Denver, C

2015    "Solo B&W Show" S.O. Gallery, Denver, CO

​

 

​2013    “Walking the Dogs of War”,  S.O. Gallery, Denver, CO

2013    “People Place Things”,  S.O. Gallery, Denver, CO

2013     “Recent Works" Solo Show,  Mad Greens @ the Denver Art Museum

​

2011    “House and Home”, S.O. Gallery, Denver, CO

 

2010    “Run, Run, Run”,  S.O. Gallery, Denver, CO

 

2008    “Photographic Commission” University of Colorado

 

2006    “Forms of Dialog”   juried show, Lakewood Cultural Center, CO

“Phoenix Kite  ”  Capsule Gallery, Denver, CO

“Bronze Pour Performance” Capsule Gallery, Denver, CO

“Iron in the West”  invitational show, New Mexico Highlands University

            “Faculty and Staff Create”   Auraria Library Gallery

            “Back to School”  Groundworks Gallery, Denver, CO

            “Dia de los Muertos”  Pirate: Contemporary Art, Denver, CO

            “My mirror”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

“Death Song”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

            “Persistence Remains”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

“Tsunami Peace”  Kinetic installation, University of Colorado at Denver,

            “Guillotine”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

2005    “Photography Show”  solo show, Forrest Room 5, Denver, CO

            “You too, Iraq Truth”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

            “Discordance”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

            “Cornucopia of Us”  University of Colorado at Denver, Art Gallery

 

 

 

 

Statement

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

My perceptions of life are the fabric of my artistic expression.  Life is fragile at times and other times it seems like a path set in stone.  In either case, life and art are about movement and change as well as being ordered and controlled, or difficult to control.  The immutability of these facts of life is the very essence of our lives and the source of my creative expression.  In 460 B.C., Hippocrates wrote:

 

“Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.”

 

Sculpturally, I express Hippocrates’ observation with varying materials, processes and explorations.  While one piece may be a free standing wooden sculpture bound with twine that is fragile and potentially short lived, another may be an iron cast settled in concrete.  Both pieces are a coherent body given the contradictions presented by life itself.  While one may express spirituality and the Native American experience, the other may be a more personal inquiry into the hard fact that I look into the mirror religiously every morning and can see a slightly altered version of me reflected back from my personal perception of self.

 

“Self” is largely defined by the world around us.  Politics, money, religion and relationships are all part of our ‘self.’  What I see, do, experience and the judgments I make, all shape who I am and how I perceive myself.  Some of the art work I have seen has largely influenced the directions I have taken as an artist.  Juan Munoz, and Bill Woodrow are two of the artists who have influenced my work the most.  They both use simple figurative and narrative elements to convey a veritable story in a single piece of 3-dimensional work.  I often create work that does the same utilizing my own context and drawn from my own experience. 

 

Fairly early in life, I was fortunate enough to read “Of Moon and Sixpence”, by Somerset Maughm.  That story, while tragic, gave me insight into what it means to be an artist and nurtures my desire to express myself.  It is a story about a middle aged man who suddenly realizes he has suppressed his artistic side and must seek it out by leaving his family and starting anew in a different country.  He takes a new wife in a village in India and contracts Leprosy.  In this village he knows that his elaborate hut will be burned down to purge the people of the plague.  Despite this fact, he paints elaborate works on every wall of the place knowing that it will all be destroyed and never seen by anyone.  Despite the fact that his life was shortened, the fictitious artwork remains the most beautiful work I will never see.  This, to me, is life and art and the potential for all that will come.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

___________________________________________________________________

 

Rick grew up in the Washington D.C. area where he immersed himself in various Smithsonian collections.  He began taking collegiate level sculpture courses at New College of the University of South Florida and he earned a Bachelor of the Arts and Sciences with a Sculpture Major and Spanish Minor in 2008 from the University of Colorado.

 

Some of Mr. Wilson’s work has been displayed in Sarasota, Florida, as well as Highlands, New Mexico, while the bulk of his work shows in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.  He has shown works at Chaos Gallery, the Ground Works Gallery, the Pirate Gallery and Capsule Gallery in Denver.  Recently, he had a sculptural piece shown in the juried exhibition at the Lakewood Cultural Center and a set of black and white photographs commissioned by the University of Colorado.  Recent works included three solo shows at various galleries around the Denver metropolitan area.  Much of his work is also part of several private collections.  Works in private collections include paintings, black and white as well as color photographs, screen prints and a commissioned installation sculpture.  Rick also has poetry published in Salmagundi Magazine, a book published by the Mile High Society of Poetry and a collection by the National Library of Poetry.

 

In 2013, Mr. Wilson held three solo shows which included all new sculptures, paintings, and photographs at various galleries in the Denver area.