Letha Wilson’s practice is rooted in material experimentation. Her synthesis of mediums expands the visual and physical dimensions of photography and sculpture. By combining industrial materials such as welded Corten steel, poured concrete, aluminum sheeting, and vinyl with traditional photography, Wilson has developed unique fabrication processes. She prints images depicting the beauty of natural landscapes onto her sculptures and embeds them in the surface of her works, wrangling them into unique formations that provide a high contrast of heft and density with lightness and play. The sweeping expanse of a desert sunset, grooved rock formations, and verdant palm trees are among images Wilson has taken while traveling in Hawaii, the American West, and Iceland. The natural world is both the subject and content of her work; a metaphor for the role of the landscape in myths of renewal, and possibility.
Wilson’s site-specific works and public projects convey her ideas on a monumental scale, altering the space around them and offering moments of respite in the urban landscape. The outdoor sculptures engage directly with the elements and nature; as patinas form over time due to weather conditions, the natural world will act as a co-creative force on the appearance of these artworks.
Letha Wilson was born in Hawaii, raised in Greeley, Colorado, and currently lives and works in Taghkanic and Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from Syracuse University and her MFA from Hunter College in New York City, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2009. Her work has been shown at many venues including Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University, CA; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; and the Nasher Museum at Duke University, Durham, NC. Solo and two-person exhibitions have been held at GRIMM Gallery in New York and London, Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Paris, FR, Higher Pictures Generations, New York, and Sperone Westwater, New York. Her outdoor sculptures have been installed in the City of Las Vegas, NV, Riverside Park, New York, NY, the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, and the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA.
Wilson has been awarded artist residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Walentas Studio Program, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and Headlands Center for the Arts, and she received the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography. For the academic year 2025, Letha was appointed the Stuart B. Cooper Endowed Chair of Photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore (MICA). Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Artsy, among others.
Contact: letha.studio(at)gmail.com
Instagram: @letha.wilson