ED WILSON AMERICAN SCULPTOR
COMMISSIONS - George R. Brown, Houston Texas, 2016
"Soaring Sculpture" After art controversy, soaring sculpture unveiled at George R. Brown Convention Center
By Clifford Pugh, Nov 14, 2016
After a contentious history, the clouds have lifted over the George R. Brown Convention Center. Houston artist Ed Wilson’s Soaring In The Clouds, a 67-foot-high mobile of shiny metal clouds and cutout birds commissioned for the facility's atrium, was unveiled last week as part of Houston First's $175 million project to spruce up the area before Super Bowl LI early next year.
The large-scale sculpture was the center of controversy last year after the Houston Arts Alliance rescinded Wilson's commission to create the $830,000 project, alleging it had been awarded prematurely, amid documents that revealed that some members of the selection committee believed that Wilson did not have enough of a national reputation to receive the commission.
Director of civic art and design Matthew Lennon, who is a friend of Wilson, resigned in protest. The selection process was reopened and the project got back on track when Wilson was awarded the commission once again. The sculpture is funded through the city's percent-for-art program, which sets aside 1.75 percent of eligible city capitol improvement project funds for art. The Houston Arts Alliance approves and develops art projects for Houston airports and city-owned buildings, including the convention center and other downtown landmarks managed by Houston First Corporation.
Another large sculpture, Wings Over Water by Joe O'Connell + Creative Machines, will be installed above the Fountain of the Americas, outside the convention center, in January. And eight smaller works by Houston artists are scheduled to be installed around the convention center before Super Bowl weekend in early February.
The area is expected to be a focal point of Super Bowl activities, with a major Marriott Marquis Hotel and several new restaurants along an area dubbed Avenida Houston scheduled to open in the coming weeks.
The Art of Ed Wilson
By Michael Roque Collins
The work of Ed Wilson is steeped with the juices of belief. Unfettered by solely commercial or esthetic criteria, his work plumbs the soul through honest reflection of his in-dividual beliefs. His work connects central themes of faith and fear through spiritual longings and contemplates the use of power in the world. Wilson’s sculptures possess metaphysical aspects such as machinery of war and its impact on nature.
It is relatively easy for an artist to find his truth, though much more difficult to defend and cultivate one’s own territory of conceptual belief. Wilson is at the center of global creative currents reflecting religious, political, environmental and cultural fractures so evident in our splenetic world. Peter Plagens, noted art critic, once stated that, “…artists, like the rest of the population, also pay subconscious attention to the culture as a whole. They know, at some level, about the momentum that’s going from antiquar-lanism to barbarism.” Wilson clearly reflects this momentum. This shift is evidenced in his use of humor, brutality of fact, honesty, and spirituality. When reflecting on the pow-er and originality possessed by this artist, the political and the absurd nature of violence are illuminated. In his creative oeuvre we see our own fears for the misuse of power as well as the manifested results in our surrounding world.
Ray Hylenski documents the making of "Soaring in the Clouds" a public art work by Ed Wilson.
Michael Roque Collins continued ....
In a time where so many art trends reflect “high art esthetics,” where process becomes content, the work of Ed Wilson is refreshing because he combines excellence of process in collaboration with art about the human experience. This artist has developed his techniques to the limits of technical perfection. The subject matter, however, is rooted in internal and spiritual forms. These subjects question the very nature of our rituals relating to faith and to cultural power. His works questions the abuse of power in our society and investigates globally rooted power aspirations. This artist´s work possesses quixotic sub themes which are often balanced with rye humor and sublimely quirky figuration. As we find ourselves surrounded daily by brutal global aggression his work becomes even more timely and as a prescient reminder of our need for respecting humanity and fostering individual spirituality.
Ed Wilson’s works are rich with delicate patinas of grey and subtle colors underscoring the somber nature of his thinking expressed powerfully through his sculptures. There exists a sense of potential menace and a price to be paid for our shared cultural greed. As with the works of Otto Dix, a certain powerful grotesquery exists in his works. Wil-son’s use of a surrealistic sense of space and form commingle to foster a mysteriously metaphysical presence in his bias relief’s and large sculpture. Perspective is distorted in his shallow relief landscapes further isolating the viewer in city spaces emptied of the human presence. There exists a horrible beauty in his subject that is contrasted by the elegance of his precise and well crafter process. His sculptures invite and repel with the power of suggestion and the horror of a darker presence of humanity. Even in their playful appearance there lies a connection to the turret and blade of conflict so prevalent today in our global conflicts. Wilson states that “As much as I am attracted to the idea, I am also impassioned by the sheer beauty of the metal and cast surface. To move the materials towards the most beautiful conclusion possible is an urgent goal in all of my works.” As one moves through this array remember that some of these small sculptural maquettes stand for the many large wall and room sized works. With this scale shift in mind one begins to feel and sense a mystery possible in his art.
In closing, the work of Ed Wilson stands as an impassioned reminder to the value of both heartfelt content and masterfully resolved process in a work of art. The truth of his voice has been protected over time through the love, gestation and perseverance so vital for all artists. The fruit of focused and intelligent repetition has developed honesty of vision and curiosity through purpose. This artist´s work stands as an exclamation for the vital sense of belief so missing in a large part of recent contemporary art. His works are stunning examples of the process and content existing in soulistic harmony beyond the banality of erasure. Their works stand in heroic opposition to the shallowness of art found to reflect only the means of its process and not the soul of the maker.