Ed Wilson: The Sculptor as Afro-humanist

September 7–December 9, 2023

The Binghamton University Art Museum will present the exhibition, Ed Wilson: The Sculptor as Afro-humanist, as the main gallery exhibition for the fall semester, September 7–December 9, 2023. The exhibition opens Thursday, September 7, with a public reception, 5:00-7:00 pm. 

Ed Wilson: The Sculptor as Afro-humanist will be the first retrospective of this under-recognized American artist in over fifty years. Wilson (1925–1996), longtime member of the studio faculty at Binghamton University, was an innovative sculptor whose practice evolved from figures carved from stone and wood in the 1950s toward large-scale public artworks, often sited in educational institutions, beginning in the late 1960s. The exhibition, organized by Adjunct Curator and Professor of Art History, Tom McDonough, and assisted by Claire L. Kovacs, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, will feature Wilson’s surviving sculptural works and drawings, assembled from Museum holdings and loans from private and public collections nationwide, along with the artist’s personal archives held by his family. The exhibition will present the most comprehensive overview of his 45-year long career. 

Support for the exhibition is generously provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support is provided by The Gary and Connie Kunis Foundation and by Rebecca Moshief and Harris Tilevitz ’78. 

In conjunction with the Wilson exhibition is Memory & Soul: Black Art from the Permanent Collection, organized by Claire L. Kovacs, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions. Spanning works from the earliest days of building the permanent collection in the 1960s and ’70s, to a concerted effort in recent years to increase representation of Black artists, this exhibition features twenty-seven works by artists that span many decades, from James Van Der Zee, Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence to Howardena Pindell, Alison Saar, and many others. A sculpture by David Hammons, Untitled, 1988, generously on loan from Art Bridges, complements the Ed Wilson and Memory & Soul exhibitions. 

Three small exhibitions in our lower galleries also open September 7, curated by students: Culture and Commodity: Inquiries into the African Art Collection; Judging a Book by Its Cover; and What is a magic realist?

All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For details on upcoming programming see our “Events” page and social media.