Adrian Wilson (artist)

Wilson studied HND Design (photography) from 1984-1986 at Blackpool and The Fylde College, where, according to Digital Art historian Grant Taylor,[1] he was one of the first photographers to specialize in digital image manipulation. Aly Ray Smith believes Wilson was the first photographer who specialized in creating images using a $250,000 digital paint system known as a Quantel Paintbox[2][3][4] which was launched nine years before Adobe Photoshop. Wilson created one of the earliest photographic memes and was included in the international "Art & Computers" exhibition[5] at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in 1988. Wilson wrote for Computer Images magazine, was a guest speaker on digital art at Camberwell College of Art and created digital art for a range of clients, most notably for Creative Review magazine and the cover of Gold Mother[6] by recording artists James. In 1990, Wilson stopped creating digital art and put his archive into storage.

Wilson specializes in photographing interiors[7] and was the photographer for all Mondiale Publishing[8] magazines, shooting hundreds of nightclubs[9] between 1988 and 2000. In 2004, Wilson moved to New York,[10] where he currently shoots for clients including LVMH[11] The New York Times[12] and Architectural Digest.[13]

Adrian Wilson salvaged a large collection of art from Manchester's textile warehouses in the 1980s, part of which is now displayed[14] in the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester and the Museum of Art and Photography[15] in Bangalore.

Wilson has given various talks on the collection, including at Typecon[16] and as an expert on the Antiques Roadshow when it visited Manchester. In 2015, Wilson created "The Inutilious Retailer",[17] an interactive art exhibit which was open for 10 months on Ludlow Street, NYC and won a Store of the Year award.[18]

In 2018, Wilson created the "Space X Gallery" which he hid above a fake Boring Company start-up office in a derelict building in the Lower East Side,[19] a one-man "Introspective"[20] show about Jerry Saltz and a Native American art exhibition titled "Artonement".[21]

Wilson opened the first gallery in Jean Michel Basquiat's last studio and home[22] at 57 Great Jones St, NY and named it The "Same Old Gallery"[23]

Wilson is mostly known for his street art,[24][25] specifically his makeover of NYC street and subway signs to honor icons such as David Bowie,[26] Prince.[27] Eddie Van Halen,[28] Aretha Franklin,[29] which the MTA made into a permanent tribute. Wilson never signs his work and only admitted the works were his[30] following his attainment of U.S. citizenship in 2020.

Following the $450 million sale of the much restored Salvator Mundi and an $800,000 complete set of Supreme skateboard decks, Wilson created the "Supreme Mundi", which in 2019 sold as the world's most expensive skateboard.[31]

In response to COVID-19, Wilson created several pandemic-related pieces (now in permanent collections at the Royal College of Art and V&A Museum[32][33]) and collaborated with Heidi Hankaniemi to create a "Hazmask suit and dress" [34] to promote mask wearing which went viral.[35]

In 2021, Wilson purchased one of the last 5 remaining Quantel Paintboxes in North America and restored it to working order.