Since relocating to San Francisco almost 3 years ago, former Chicago painter Pamela Wilson encountered the “desire to move away from the more distant aesthetic of contemporary abstract painting” — the result will be her first solo show since 1992 at moniquemeloche with a new body work marking a significant change in style. With a complete lack of irony Wilson chooses her images primarily for their formal concerns, yet never denying they often resonate with aesthetics and politics. The sources are not exotic; snapshots, newspapers, photos friends unsuspectingly send, a domestic view so familiar one is surprised to find something seemingly worthy of attention. Wilson says “in each I am trying to join an essentially abstract painting language with the often mundane but occasionally overwhelming visual realities within the spectrum of everyday life.” Using images both public and personal, themes of architecture, the domestic, portraiture, the history of painting, and history emerge, recede, and realign as focuses of concern within each painting. The essential relationship between the works lays in the way these ideas coalesce and regroup amidst such disparate images that all share the touch of an extremely accomplished painter.
Pamela Wilson was born on the East Coast in 1954, attended Boston University, School of Visual Arts NY, received her BFA from University of California, Berkeley, and her Masters of Art History and Theory from SAIC, Chicago where she spent many years as a graduate advisor, and most recently taught at California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco. Previous exhibitions include Dart Gallery Chicago (1992), Illinois State Museum (1995), Chicago Cultural Center (1996/1990), The Arts Club of Chicago (1998), and Lake Forest College (1999).
