Charlotte-based artist Stephen Wilson has been expanding his work with his support of the Levine Children’s hospital.
Earlier this fall, Cottie & Cake Fund paired four graduates of Levine Children’s NICU with different Charlotte-based artists and and together, each pair created a work of art. Stephen and Grayson’s final piece of artwork, pictured here, will be auctioned off on November 9 to benefit the hospital’s fetal care research and NICU.
Stephen Wilson has had a big year with his installation, Americana. Every part of the 39-piece (or 224 square-feet of 35 million stitches) installation was presented for the viewing pleasure of New York’s opera enthusiasts. Created in typical Stephen Wilson fashion, thousands of 2″ x 2″ squares came together to form modernized representations of the American flag, Abraham Lincoln, Rosie the Riveter, Annie Oakley, John Wayne, Spanish tiles, portraits of Native Americans, historic quilting patterns, and animals from horses and bulls to butterflies.
As acclaimed art critic and artist, Bruce Helander states in his accompanying book, Stephen’s work “bravely bridge[s] the gap between fashion embroidery and American Crafts with post-modernist fine art…[creating] bold experiments and courageous expeditions merging textiles that are sewn and embroidered. Often his work has evolved into an examination of art about art, with clever and inventive interpretations and commandeering of pop art imagery like what Warhol combined, but, in Wilson’s case, employing a remarkable and impressive original element in thread as opposed to paint as a medium. Wilson mixes contemporary history with craft, and follows an inspired practice that began when Picasso appropriated and recycled newspaper in his 1913 painting, Bowl with Fruit, Violin and Wineglass.”
See more of Wilson’s work at newgalleryofmodernart.com
