Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist who creates sculpture, drawings, performances and video animations that explore themes of time, loss, and private and social rituals. Her artwork embraces conceptual strategies and handwork using everyday materials — table linen, bed sheets, human hair, lace, thread, glass, and wire.

Wilson’s art is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Des Moines Art Center, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, among others.

Wilson was named a 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Fellow and is the recipient of awards from the Textile Society of America (2017 Fellow), the Driehaus Foundation, Artadia, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, NASAD (Citation Recipient), Cranbrook Academy of Art (Distinguished Alumni Award), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council. She is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago and Paul Kotula Projects, Detroit. Wilson is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wilson’s 2020 solo exhibition “Anne Wilson: If We Asked about the Sky” was presented at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago and she was a special guest artist within the “16th International Triennial of Tapestry” at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Poland in 2019. Exhibitions in 2018 include “FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art,” “Handheld” at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, and “bauhaus imaginista: Learning From” at SESC Pompéia São Paulo, Brazil. Her voice contributes to the new book, “Art in Chicago” (University of Chicago Press, fall 2018). Exhibitions in 2017 include “Ruptures” at the Des Moines Art Center, “Thread Lines” at the KMAC Museum, Louisville, “Weaving Europe: The World as Meditation” at the Othellos-Attikon Cultural Centre, Pafos, Cyprus, and a solo exhibition at Rhona Hoffman Gallery. In 2015-16 Wilson’s work was in “Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today” at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (traveling to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.), “Art_Textiles” at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England, and a solo exhibition at James Harris Gallery, Seattle. Her 2014 performance commission, “To Cross (Walking New York),” was staged at The Drawing Center, New York, and her work was also included in “Fiber: Sculpture 1960-Present,” originating at the ICA Boston. In 2012-13 Wilson’s exhibitions include “Anne Wilson: Dispersions” at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, “Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber” at the Zhejiang Art Museum, China, and “Global Threads” at The Whitworth, Manchester, England. Solo exhibitions in 2011 include “Rewinds” at Rhona Hoffman Gallery and “Local Industry” at the Knoxville Museum of Art. In 2010 Wilson’s work was part of “Hand + Made” at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and her solo exhibition “Anne Wilson: Wind/Rewind/Weave” was presented at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Earlier exhibitions include “Out of the Ordinary” at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2007-08), “Alternative Paradise” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2005-06), “Perspectives 140: Anne Wilson” at The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2004), “Anne Wilson: Unfoldings” at MassArt, Boston (2002) and the University Art Gallery, San Diego State University (2003), the “Whitney Biennial” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2002), and “Anne Wilson: Anatomy of Wear” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2000).