BIO

Marion Wilson’s art investigates ecology and landscape to foster a closer connection to self and place. Through paintings, photographs and installations she interrogates our relations to nature at a time when extreme climate change threatens ecosystems, livelihoods, and communities.

As a Professor and in her social practice projects Wilson builds collaborative partnerships with botanists, architects, and mostly urban communities by accessing individual expertise and working non-hierarchically. As an Associate Professor at Syracuse University from 2007-17 Marion Wilson institutionalized an art curriculum called New Directions in Social Sculpture as a result of her belief in the revitalization of urban spaces through the arts.  She used recycled materials and unlikely collaborations to revitalize urban spaces through the arts. Wilson is the founder of MLAB and the Mobile Field Station (a mobile eco/art lab in a collaboratively renovated RV) and 601 Tully—the renovation of an abandoned 1900 square ft residence that had become a drug house into a neighborhood art museum on the westside of Syracuse, NY.  Wilson holds a BA from Wesleyan University; an M.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from University of Cincinnati.  Her individual studio work uses artifacts of the photography industry in sculpture, painting and printed photographs to explore industrialized landscapes and useful and stress tolerant botanies with a special interest in moss.

Wilson has exhibited with New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC; Frederieke Taylor, NYC, Herbert Johnson Museum at Cornell University, Kasia Kay Art Projects, New Orleans; Dorsky Gallery, NYC; Shroeder Romero Gallery, Exit Art, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts and Sculpture Center, NYC; in addition to Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; SPACES, Cleveland Ohio; and SCOPE Miami/Art Basel, Miami, Florida. Wilson has been awarded funded residencies at Millay Colony for the Arts (Nancy Graves Award); International Studio Program (NYSCA and Elizabeth Foundation), Sculpture Space in Utica, NY and most recently McColl Center for Art and Innovation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wilson is currently a lead artist for Mural Arts, Restored Spaces working in North Philly with William Cramp Elementary School on a project called Uprooted/re-Rooted.

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

1993 M.F.A. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

1990 M. A. Columbia University, New York City, NY (Urban Pedagogy)

1983 B.A. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (Studio Art major; Political Science minor))

PUBLIC ART PROJECTS: INTERACTIVE COLLABORATIONS

2019-2020 // Landscape is Sanctuary to Our Fears, commissioned by National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with William Paterson University gallery, Paterson, NJ.

2017-2019 // UpRooted/ReRooted 7,000 square foot mural and themed community garden in partnership with William Cramp Elementary School in north Philadelphia, commissioned by Mural Arts Project, Philadelphia, Restored Spaces.

2016,2018 // Greening the Red Line, an arts curriculum and public art 24 foot constructed and painted wall in partnership with McColl Center for Art and Innovation and Urban Ministries, Charlotte, NC. Two funded residencies at McColl Center; and Art Place America participating artist.

2015-2017 // The Mobile Field Station (I Want to Teach the Whole World to Draw….moss) is a mobile art and science moss herbarium in collaboration with expert bryologists beginning at PULSE 2015 Art Fair/Miami Art Basel Week and traveling to urban and rural sites observing, classifying, drawing with ancient and current technologies through public engagement activities.

2014 //  I-81 Urban Rest Stop, Public Art Project; NEA funded, curated by Marc Norman

2013 // Transporting, IDEAS City; New Museum/Arts Brookfield in Battery Park City, Artist in Resident in Habitat for Artists; Battery Park City, curated by Amy Lipton/Simon Draper

2010-2013 // Complete Design/Build of 601 Tully (Center for Engaged Research); affiliate of Syracuse University. Led a team of 54 neighbors and students in the complete re-design/build/sustain of an abandoned residence -turned drug house in the ninth poorest neighborhood in America – the near westside of Syracuse - as an artist driven neighborhood revitalization project. 601 Tully now supports artists, neighbors and university in the co-production of new culture through residencies, exhibitions and public projects.

2009 // Museum of the City of Lost and Found (solo project in group exhibition); KK Projects, New Orleans Biennial; commissioned a new work in the form of a mobile bicycle structure that collected, housed, travelled and interpreted objects of loss and findings.

2008 // MLAB (transformed 1984 American Eagle RV into mobile literacy arts bus gallery, classroom and digital lab for Syracuse city public schools). Led a design build team of nine in the compete renovation of MLAB.

2004 // Counter Culture, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC

SOLO ARTIST EXHIBITIONS

2020 // William Paterson University Gallery, NEA commission, catalog, Landscape is Sanctuary to our Fears, Paterson, NJ

2016 // Schuylkill Center for Art and Environment

2015 // Pulse Art Fair Miami, Frederieke Taylor Gallery (booth and public art project - MLAB)

2010 // Artificially Free of Nature; Frederieke Taylor Gallery, – paintings of superfund site in four seasons. New York,

2009 // Museum of the City of Lost and Found, Warehouse Gallery, Syracuse, NY

2005 // Tender, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, NYC,NY

2005 // -scopeNewYork, guest installation artist

2004 // -scopeMiami, “This Store Too”, guest performance artist, curated by Melanie Cohn, New Museum

2004 // ARTWALK NY, “This Store Too”, installation, New School, NY

2003 // Remnants of Luxury in Forbidden Play, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, New York

2003 // Distilled Lives, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, catalog

2003 // Marion Wilson, Dowd Fine Arts Center, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY

2000 // Playing War, Sculpture Center, New York, NY, video/public project, funded by Gunk Foundation

1999 // Playing War, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo,

1999 // Marion Wilson: Recent Work, Dana Arts Center, Colgate University, Hamilton,NY

1998 // Boy and Memory Rags, Olean Public Art Gallery, Olean, NY,

1996 // Automata Urban Poems and Other Dead Things (Performance and installation in an Armory Square storefront,) Syracuse, NY

1995 // Abjections/Devotions; Two person exhibition, SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, OH

1994 // Corporeal Investigations, George Ayers Cress Gallery, University of Tennessee, TN

1994 // Marion Wilson: Corpus Politik, Thomas Moore College, KY, Visiting Artist

1993 // Corpus Politik, Tangeman Gallery, University of Cincinnati

 SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019 // McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Art Place America participating artists

2016 // McColl Center for Art and Innovation gallery exhibition

2015 // PULSE, Miami Art Fair, featured artist with Frederieke Taylor Gallery

2015 // Dorsky Gallery, Home, curated by Margaret Berenson

2015 // Bronx Art Space, The 2% Precipice

2015 // “La”, Seven international women artists for Women’s History Month, Casa Quien Gallery, Santo Domingo, DR

2014 // Open Studios, Building 110 Process Space, LMCC, Governors Island, NY

2014 // Wavehill Art and Gardens, Bronx, New York; Prickly, Tender and Steamy: Artists in the Hothouse

2014 // Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University; Beyond Earth Art; curated by Andrea Inselmann. (panel)

2014 // Bronx River Arts Center, Terrier; curated by Tattfoo Tan

2013 // Ramapo College, It’s the end of the world and I feel fine, curated by Amy Lipton (panel)

2013 // Palitz Gallery, Lubin House, New York, NY, curated by Ruth Appelhof

2012 // Cultura Digital Festival, Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Jainero, Brazil

2011 // BMW GuggenheimLab, “Urban by Nature”, panel and Public Painting workshop

2011 // 37PK, Haarlem, Netherlands, “Scenery, Landscape in the 21st century”

2011 // Beyond the Horizon, 60 Wall Street Gallery, Deutsche Bank, curated by Amy Lipton and Liz Christenson also at Ecoartspace

2009 // Sculpture Center, NYC, University of Trash, Architecture in Crisis; Guest presenter with MLAB.

2008 // Retail Value, Dorsky Gallery, LIC, NY; curated by Patricia Phillips

2007 // SelfHouseSelf, Redhouse ArtsCenter, Syracuse, NY.

2005 // Obsession, ThreadArt, Seattle, WA

2004 // Selections, curated by Barry Walker, MOMA, International Print Center

2004 // BANG!, Little Gallery, Colgate University, catalog, essayist Lucy Lippard

2004 // Maternal Metaphors, Rochester Center of Contemporary Art, catalog

2003 // Residuum, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, New York, NY

2003-04 // Culture of Violence; Travelling exhibition and catalog, curated by Donna Harkavy and Helaine Posner; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Bowdoin Museum of Art, Harn Museum.

2001 //  Recent Acquisitions, Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, 59th Exhibition of Central NY Artists, Munson Williams Proctor Institute, catalog, Utica, NY

2001 // War Games, The Workspace Gallery, New York, NY,

2000 // Elements 2000, The New House Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, NYC,

1999 // The Body in Question, The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, curated by Alice Stites

1998 // Everson Museum of Art Biennial, Syracuse, NY, curated by Bill Arning

1998 // Open Studios, International Studio Program, NYC

1997 // International Womens Exhibition, Soho20, NYC, curated by Clare Bell

1996-7 // B.A.B.Y., 1708 Gallery, Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, VA; Virginia Beach Center for the Arts Contemporary Art, Traveling exhibition with catalog. NEA Exhibition Grant, curated by Jan Riley. (one of two installation artists chosen to travel with the exhibition)

1996 // Upstate Invitational. Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester,NY

1996 // Seperating Self: Art about Identity, Selected works from the Robert Schiffler Collection; Watertower Gallery, Louisville Visual Art Association. traveling exhibition.

1995 // Instinctive Appetite; (3 installations), Machine Shop Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

1993-4 // International Print & Drawing Biennial, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

1994 // Invitational Exhibition, Cumberland College Gallery

1993 // Small Works Exhibition; (1st prize award;) Schoharie County Arts Council, National 93, curated by Ann Philbin

1993 // Books, In Situ Gallery, Cincinnati, OH

ARTIST GRANTS, AWARDS and RESIDENCIES

2019-20 // National Endowment for the Arts, with William Paterson University gallery, solo exhibition of new place-based work, catalog

2018 // Art Place America, A Tale of Two Cities, Charlotte North Carolina, participating artist

2016 // McColl Center for Art and Innovation, Environmental Artist-in-Residence – funded residency four months

2016 // Sculpture Space – Social Practice artist in residency

2014 // Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC); Process Space, Governors Island – five months

2013 // Sam and Adele Golden Foundation; Artist Residency, New Berlin NY

2012 // Chancellors Award for Teaching and Global Impact, (highest award the University gives to faculty members); Syracuse University

2010 // Wave Hill Art and Gardens, Artist Residency, Bronx, NY

2008, 2010 // Shaw Center for Community Engagement; MLAB 601 Tully; Syracuse University Teaching award

2002 // New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist in the Schools, artists in residency grant

2000 // Gunk Foundation; two window video and sculpture installations at Sculpture Center; video collaboration with Edgar Endress, sounds Ed Ruchalski

2000 // New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist in the Schools, artists in residency grant; art and science curriculum in the creation of a public sculpted and cast motorized fountain

2000 // Sculpture Space, Utica, NY, (NYSCA) funded residency

1999 // Millay Colony for the Arts, endowed fellowship, Nancy Graves Foundation

1998 // International Studio Program, NY, sponsored by Hallwalls, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and the Elizabeth Foundation.

1997 // S.O.S. Central NY region (NYFA/NYSCA)

1996 // S.O.S. Central NY region (NYFA/NYSCA)

1995 // Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Artist Grant

SELECT REVIEWS and AUTHORED ESSAYS

BOMB Magazine, Louis Bury

INTar Journal

Publication Rhode Island School of Design; editor Patricia Phillips

The Butterfly Effect of an Artist’s Itinerancy and Adaptive Reuse:

Talking Social Practice Curriculum while renovating an RV; text messaging and sculpting a neighborhood landmark (co-authored wth Anda French JMassey)

HyperAllergic, Claire Voon, “Plants Plants everywhere at PULSE/Miami” 12/2015

PUBLIC; on-line journal. “Neighboring as a

Public Act” ; with accompanying conversation with Rick Lowe.

"Socially Engaged Art" by Patricia C. Phillips published in Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer, editors.

Artists Reclaim the Commons: New Works/New Territories/New Publics. (Hamilton, NJ: isc Press, 2013) by Jennifer MacGregor

Wired, Beyond the Horizon, 2011

Art In America, “Counter Culture on the Bowery and vicinity, by Cathy Lebowitz (Nov. 2004)

TimeOut New York, Treasure Hunt, Linda Yablonsky (Aug.5-Aug.12, 2004)

New York Times, “The New Museum’s Non-Museum, Randy Kennedy, July 24, 2004

Sculpture Magazine, “Marion Wilson,” review at Cheryl Pelavin Gallery, Jan Riley, (Spring 2004)

ArtNews, review, Mary Schnedier Enriquez, (April 2004)

New York Times, Art Guide, Ken Johnson, (May 2003)

Juliet, “Marion Wilson,” Pietro Valle, (February 2003)

Syracuse Post-Standard, Katherine Rushworth, “At the End of the Row,” (June 15, 2002)

The Culture of Violence (catalog introduction), Donna Harkavy, and Posner Helaine. Amherst, Ma: University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, 2002

New Art Examiner, “Survival Strategies, Gearing up for Autarkic Communities or Post-Political Society,” Sue. Spaid, (2001)

Public Art Review, “Sculpture Center Installation,” (November 2000)

Sculpture Magazine, review, “Playing War”, by Thomas Piche, Jr. (October 1999)

New Art Examiner, "Test Family, Children in Contemporary Art", Michelle Grabner (October 1999)

Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, “Playing War,” (catalog) essayist: Bill Arning (May 1999)

Buffalo Daily News, review of “Playing War”, by Richard Herrington (May 1999)

Syracuse Post Standard, profile story, “Syracusan is awarded prestigious residency” by Sherry Chayatt (Sept 1998)

Sculpture Magazine, “Outdoor Public Sculpture”, (1997)

Daily Press, Norfolk, VA “B.A.B.Y. art is an exhibit that disturbs”, Mark St. John Erickson (1997)

The Beacon, "B.A.B.Y. panelists coo and cry about parenthood", Holly Webster (1997)

The Virginian Pilot, Virginia Beach, VA, "Baby Boom", Teresa Annas (1997)

City, Rochester, NY, "At Pyramid:a sumptuous new "Invitational", by Ron Netsky (Jan. 1997)

Boy and Memory Rags (Brochure) essayist: Judith Meighan (1997)

Richmond Style Weekly, "Oh Baby" by Paulette Roberts-Pullen (Fall 1996)

Richmond Papers, "Exhibit's baby theme cries for attention", by CeCe Bullard (Fall 1996)

Syracuse Herald Journal, Stars Magazine, “Big Important Town Opens Dialog”, Sherry Chayatt (Spring 1996)

International Biennial Print & Drawing Exhibition (Catalog) (1994), Taipei, Taiwan

National Fifteenth Edition Exhibition Directory(cover photo "Fat") (1994)

Cincinnati Enquirer, "Opening a Window into Human Rights Problems in Cincinnati, Owen Findsen (Dec. 1994)

WCKY Radio, Solo Interview as chief organizer and exhibitor of "Protest Issue 3, Window Installations," Cincinnati, OH (1994)

COLLECTIONS

Michael Strauss Private Collection; Board Member Andy Warhol Foundation

Shel Kasmir, Art Consultation, Houston. TX

Barbara Hoffmann, Private Collection

Pavel Zoubok Private Collection

Michael Sellinger, Producer, SCOPE Art Fair, private collection

Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, museum collection

Tom Piche, Curator Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY Private Collection

Katie Hauser and Joel Reed, Private Collection

Robert Shiffler Collection of Contemporary Art, Greenville, OH

Peter Morrin, Director, The Speed Art Museum, private collection

Clifton County Public School System, Board of Education Office, OH

Barclays Bank, NYC, Private Collection

McKinney & Allsopp Investors, NYC, Corporate Collection

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Visiting Professor, Montclair State University, (2018-present), Color and Light.

Research Associate Professor; Syracuse University (2008-2017). Developed “New Directions in Social Sculpture”; an interdisciplinary design-build curriculum between School of Art, School of Architecture. Over six years successfully completed construction of two large scale community based design/build sustainable public art projects: MLAB and 601 Tully. (see below). Social Sculpture curriculum designs spaces to share resources between areas of urban poverty and adjacent wealth (university).

Research Associate Professor, Syracuse University on SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry campus (2015-16) Developed a new (STEAM) curriculum linking art and botany through observational drawing and microscopy; includes history of artists engaging landscape.

Director of Community Initiatives Syracuse University, 2007-2010 ; Assisted administration and faculty in creating a dialogic and non-hierarchical model for community partnerships; and spearheaded artist and neighborhood projects.in fulfillment of Chancellors mission of “Scholarship in Action” developed University and community partnerships including urban school district, Say Yes to Education (national and local) Cornell Cooperative Extension; CNY Works High School fellow programs; National Grid and local small business.

Visiting Professor, Sculpture Department, Syracuse University, 2007-2010

Colgate University, Visiting Professor, 2013; sabbatical replacement

Director and Founder of 601 Tully – Center for Engaged Art & Research; Re-habilitated a neighborhood drug house into sustainable community art center. My college classes taught here on Westside of Syracuse (ninth poorest census in USA) and afterschool program and exhibition space; 4000 annual visitors.

Director and Founder of MLAB (mobile literacy arts bus. – Led the design build of an RV into mobile literacy arts bus gallery, classroom and lab for Syracuse city public schools. Sustained for four years – serving 12 elementary schools with after school arts programs – run by student-trained teaching artists.

Kauffman Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Syracuse University 2011-13

Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2D and 3D Design. 1999-2004

University of Chicago; Visiting Assistant Professor, graduate seminar Contemporary Theory and Practice. 2002-3

Everson Museum of Art; Curator of Education and Director of Public Programs; 1996-01; Syracuse, New York

Speed Art Museum, Associate Curator of Education, Schools Programs, Louisville, KY; 1994-5

University of Cincinnati, Ohio, Adjunct professor, Painting, Drawing. 1991-94

Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY Head of Lower School Art. 1990-1

The Chapin School, NYC, NY, H.S. and M.S. Studio art teacher 1986-90

The Knox School, Smithtown, NYC, High School Art and Art History Teacher. 1983-5

SELECT INSTIITUTIONAL GRANTS

(Project Director/ Creation and Implementation)

Lerner Foundation for Public Health (6k), 2014

Let the creation and implementation of a second year of an art and nutrition curriculum focusing on water, soil and recyclable food packaging and food preparation in Seymour Dual Language Academy, Syracuse, NY.

CNY Community Foundation Grant (art and nutrition curriculum in urban food desserts, 25K), 2013. Led the student creation and implementation of a Tattfoo Tan Nature Matching System mural and the writing of a matching elementary school art and nutrition curriculum at Seymour Dual Language Academy, Syracuse, NY.

National Grid Mainstreet Revitalization Grant (for 601 Tully) (25K), 2011

E-nitiative/Kauffman Foundation (arts and sustainability) 601 Tully; community arts storefront; (highest institutional grant, 50K); 2011

Imagining America (2010) grant for “Social Sculpture”: 601 Tully, design build course curriculum to create an emerging arts and entrepreneurial community center on NWS of Syracuse.

E-nitiative/Kauffman Foundation (e-professorship) MLAB (mobile literacy arts bus)(2008-10)

Verizon Foundation (Literacy Community Photography) 2007-09 (100k)

Senator Valesky and POMCO (MLAB – re-furbish 1984 RV and develop a mobile literacy arts bus classroom gallery space for SCSD) 2007 (30K)

Burton Blatt , Literacy Community Photograph with Ed Smith art/inclusion program. 2007 (w/ local teacher)

New York State Council on the Arts, Education programs with four area high schools in collaboration with Everson Museum of Art, received grant for four consecutive years. 1996-2001

New York State Council on the Arts, Film and Video Program, Everson Museum of Art Film Series. 1996-2000

Rosamond Gifford Foundation, community programs for exhibitions at EMA (52k)

John Snow Foundation, Rotary Club for curating and design of Children’s Interactive gallery at Everson Museum of Art. 1997-8

SELECT VISITING LECTURES

2015 // Keynote Lecturer- I HAVE A DREAM; national convention of IHAD cohorts. Atlanta, Georgia. Paper title: “Bus Stop, Countertops and the Corner store – the impact of artists on neighborhoods”

2014 // University and City Partnerships; University of Louisville, Louisville, KY; with Mel Chin and Kathy Barrie

2013 //  Imagining America conference, Atlanta Georgia; “Mobile Structures and Tecnologies”, panel presenter

2013 // Keynote Lecturer: Colorado I have a Dream/Americorp; “Bus stops Countertops and Corner Stores”; Metro State University, Denver, Colorado

2013 // BRUNER LOEB FORUM on "Legacy City Design," in partnership with the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City at The City College of New York, The American Assembly at Columbia University and the Detroit Collaborative Design Center

2013 // Creative Placemaking: Coalition of Metropolitan Universities, Louisville KY conference presenter

2013 //  Visiting Artist; University of Michigan (STAMP)Graduate Art Studies

2011 // EduTech in conjunction with TEDx Rio de Jainero, Brazil, sponsored by the Ministry of Education Technology and Culture 2011

2011 // Museum of Contemporary Art Cultura Digital Festival, Rio de Jainero,

2011 // BMW Guggenheim Lab, NYC, Urban by Nature, panel and public workshop

2009 // Massachusetts College of Art, Visiting Artist, Boston, MA.

2009 //  Syracuse University, Whitman School of Management, The Entrepreneurial Classroom. Lecture. 2009

2005,2009 // Altos de Chavon School of Art/Parsons, Dominican Republic– keynote graduation address (2011)

 BOARD AFFILIATIONS and PANELS

2014 // Robert Rauschenberg Foundation,

2013 // Near Westside Initiative Board

2007-9 // Stone Canoe arts journal, Syracuse, NY; art editor

2007 // New York Foundation for the Arts, arts in the schools panel member, 3 year term

2006 // New York State Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Panel Member, 3 year term

2005 // Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY