Adam Daley Wilson’s work manifests across conceptual painting, art installations, performance art, language and writing, public interest law, ethics, citizen methods in constitutional republics, and public reasoning through answerability.

His ideas and theories may arise first in one area and later in another: legal theories becoming artworks; artworks becoming public methods; art and law together in the public interest; emerging ideas that do not neatly fit within any one category.

This site is an entry point into his conceptual art and related theory. For other areas, visit adamdaleywilson.com

Update — Sept 2026

Jan 2026 Update

Adam Daley Wilson (1971, US) is a self-taught conceptual artist, art and constitutional theorist, and appellate lawyer (Stanford Law, University of Pennsylvania). He unexpectedly began producing art at age 42 in 2014 following his psychiatrist’s medication adjustment for his bipolar I disorder diagnosed decades earlier. Alongside his art studio practice (his studio is his hallway in his tiny flat), Adam Daley Wilson is a practicing appellate and public interest lawyer develops writings and theory concerning citizenship stewardship of constitutional republics, public power institutions, constitutional and human rights systems, human judgment and wisdom in relation to artificial intelligence, and the preservation of human meaning-making across any one culture, country, or time, including now in this new age of AI.

These practices sometimes remain separate and sometimes blend and blur into one another in hybrid ways through his relational and associative thinking. Current intersections include artist-placed public document art, citizen-placed public questions, courts as our last human place, and spatial (non-linear) writing systems.

For the broader constellation of current work, see adamdaleywilson.com.

For his artist CV, artist statement, and press / critic reviews to date: contact ENGAGE Projects gallery in Chicago or click here.

August 2025 Update

Summer 2025 — 3rd solo show — This Is Post-Theory Art — engage projects gallery in chicago.

Spring 2025 — public art selection / 12 artists worldwide — Override — 2025 EXPO Chicago international art fair — details here.

2024-2025 Update

Adam Daley Wilson lives and works in his hallway studio / tiny flat in Portland Maine; represented by engage projects, a conceptual art gallery in chicago, since 2020. To date, 2 of his 3 solo exhibitions have been selected by Artforum magazine as ‘Must See’ in Chicago. Starting in 2024 he has been listed as a global top-100 living artist in the combined areas of postconceptualism, postminimalism, text-based art, and activist art (Artfacts, London).

Critics on his first solo show: “profound and ambiguous”; “his writings are as interesting as his paintings”; “it is rare that one encounters [work] with such depth . . . [Daley Wilson] brings a complexity and gravitas to his work that is too often lacking in contemporary art.”

Career Snapshot to Date (as of End 2025)

3 solo shows; 7 group shows; 4 international art fairs; Expo Chicago international art fair public art selection … the gallery places 2-3 pieces each year in established collections (New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Miami, Chicago, other). Additional: Artforum — ‘Must See’ in Chicago — first two solo shows 2021 and 2023; Mousse Magazine (Italy) — selected best shows aligned with Expo Chicago 2023; emerging art theory: SSRN published article — art theory about post-theory art — ssrn.com

More on the ideation-execution process and current long-run performance here.

Below: Images from first two solo shows in Chicago at Engage Projects (2021, 2023).

Adam Daley Wilson has been represented by Engage Projects in Chicago since 2020.

ENGAGE Projects (Jennifer Armetta, gallerist / owner) is a commercial gallery in Chicago with an international reputation in multidisciplinary conceptual art. As of end 2025 the gallery currently represents about twenty artists from several countries/continents.

gallery artists have exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, The Tate Modern, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, and elsewhere.

About the Studio

I live and work in my studio. It’s in Portland, Maine. I use my hallway to hang my canvasses for my large-scale paintings. It’s 27 feet long and 3 feet wide.

Some of the Artists that I’ve Shown With

Since representation in 2020 I’ve appeared in shows with Alec Soth, Alberto Aguilar, Nick Cave, Bob Faust, Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera, Chris Larson, David Leggett, Derrick Woods-Morrow, Edra Soto, Xie Hongdong, Hasan Elahi, Jovan C. Speller, Jean Alexander Frater, Sharon Louden, Morgan, and Nick Albertson, among others.

Backstory: Law Then Art

As the formal art career develops, the formal law career is winding down. After law school, I practiced in the areas of antitrust (civil and white collar criminal), soft intellectual property, constitutional (first amendment, constitutional/human rights), and appellate law (appeals before federal and state courts) for almost 20 years, including at some of the world’s leading international law firms based in DC, SF, and LA, with traditional (non-art) degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford Law. I’ve also practiced disability rights law and in areas relating to mental illness stigma advocacy.

Gallery Contact

engage projects gallery chicago — jennifer armetta, director / owner — jennifer@engage-projects.com

adam.daley.wilson@gmail.com — 207-699-9957

Selected Press and Publications

Third solo show reviewed by art critic Teddy Sandler in New City Art (Chicago), June 26, 2025.

Second solo show featured in Mousse Magazine (Italy) in its “curated roundup of the best contemporary art exhibitions and events held by galleries, museums, and institutions in town during [EXPO Chicago 2023],” 4/10/23

Second solo show on Artforum’s must see list, Chicago, 2023

First solo show on Artforum’s must see list, Chicago, 2021

First solo show reviewed by art critic Michel Ségard in New Art Examiner (Chicago), March 2021 Issue.

NBC New Center Maine features, 2/16/21 and 2/23/21

Conceptual Theory Art as a Method for Interdisciplinary Research, Hypothesis, and Critical Analysis Both Within and Beyond Traditional Western Social Sciences (August 01, 2024). Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4913371

Selected Performance Pieces and Happenings 

If You Let Yourself Think About It (Theory Art Piece 1, Artist-Placed Public Document 1). Artist’s physical act of placing a VARA-qualifying text-based visual artwork, about a social justice legal theory of first impression in the United States, within the Supreme Court of a State, causing the justices to be both audience and actors in a happening about journalism as art and legal theory as art, 2023-2024.

Theory As Art, Journalism As Art, Law As Art (Theory Art Pieces 2, 3, 4, Artist-Placed Public Documents 2, 3, 4). Ongoing placements of VARA-qualifying text artworks within judicial branches and courts, each causing happenings within courts as to the art of journalism, the art of law, and theory as art, 2023-2026.

Look At What We Have Created No. 2. Live creation of personal writing system painting and happening with roughly 20 viewer-participants, second solo show, during EXPO Chicago, 2023.

Do You Own Conceptual Ownership? 4-day performance with video, installation, tangible art ownership experiment, and conceptual social justice ownership experiment. Guest artist project by invitation. The Other Art Fair New York, Nov. 8-11, 2018.

Some Feelings And Thoughts I’ll Have Any Second. 4-day performance with installation and conceptual video. The Other Art Fair New York, Nov. 18-22, 2017.

Look At What We Have Created. 12.25-hour performance walk through New York City, overnight, playing 6 tracks of audio from artist’s backpack, creating layers of words from academics personally known by the artist discussing issues from mass incarceration to LGBTQ+ rights, until the overlapping audio layers rendered the spoken words meaningless, Nov. 22-23, 2017.

Adam Daley Wilson

Lives and works in Portland Maine. Represented by ENGAGE Project (Chicago) 2020-present.

Solo Exhibitions (3)

2025—This Is Post-Theory Art (Chicago, Engage Projects Gallery, June 6 - July 11, 2025). 2023—This Is Text Based Art (Chicago, Engage Projects Gallery, April 14 – May 26 2023).  Artforum ‘Must See’ in Chicago. 2021—Already Gone (Chicago, Aspect/Ratio Projects (now Engage Projects), February 6 – March 13, 2021). Artforum ‘Must See.’

Public Art Selections (1)

EXPO Chicago International Art Fair, selected for public billboards (Chicago, April 2025)

Group Exhibitions (8)

2026—Resistance (Portland Maine, Creative Portland Gallery, June 2026 – June 2027). 2024—Ikigai (Chicago, Engage Projects Gallery, November 8, 2024 - January 4, 2025) 2022—Portland Debuts (Portland Maine, Cove Street Arts, September 29 – November 19, 2022) 2022—Arts and Conversations (West Palm Beach, Arts & Conversations Gallery, February 9 – February 28, 2022) 2021—VAA 37th Juried Exhibition (Houston, Visual Arts Alliance, August 25 – September 25, 2021) 2020—Fever Dream. (Chicago, Aspect/Ratio Gallery, December 5, 2020 – January 16 2021)

Juried Art Fairs (5)

2026—The Other Art Fair London (pending October 2026). 2026—The Other Art Fair Los Angeles (pending September 2026) 2018—The Other Art Fair New York (as invited guest artist) (New York, November 8 – 11, 2018) 2017—The Other Art Fair London. 2017—The Other Art Fair New York

Artist Talks (4)

2024—Four-person joint program (Stanford Law School). 2023—Two-artist joint program (Chicago). 2022—Two-artist joint program (West Palm Beach). 2021—Eight-artist joint program (Chicago)

Published Art Theory (3)

2027—Contributing Author, art-law-civic theory of artist-placed public document art (book chapter pending 2027)

2026—Author, civic theory of citizen-placed public documents (Social Science Research Network (SSRN))

2024—Author, art theory as methodological vehicle for analysis of social science theories (SSRN)

Reviews, Press, Notable

2025—Third solo show selected for critical review, New Art City Magazine, Chicago

2024-present—Artfacts (Berlin) ranked top 5% US / 10% global of over 1m gallery represented artists.

2024-present—Artfacts ranked top 1% global for post-conceptual art, text-based art, and activist art.

2023—Second solo show named ‘must see’ in Chicago by Artforum.

2023—Second solo show named a ‘best exhibition aligned with EXPO Chicago’ 2023 (Mousse Magazine, Italy).

2021—First solo show selected for critical review, New Art Examiner, Chicago.

2021—First solo show named ‘must see’ in Chicago by Artforum.

2021—NBC News Maine press coverage of first solo show.

2021—Honorable mentions, two works, Dr. Harry Cooper, Head of Modern Art, National Gallery, Washington, DC.

2018—Invited Guest Artist Installation, The Other Art Fair (New York)

2016—Los Angeles Times appearance (artwork with collector), March 13, 2016.

Collections

Private and corporate collections including in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, Miami.

Education

University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1994; Stanford Law School, J.D., 1999. Self-taught artist.

Other / Service            

Informal pro bono dispute resolution assistance for artists, US and international, 2018-present.

Board of Trustees, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, 2019-2020 and 2026-present.

Board, Yellow Tulip Project, mental illness stigma advocacy, 2020-2023.

State court mediator, 2009-2013.

Disability rights and human rights legal advocacy, 2014-2017.

Pro bono legal counseling for artists and non-profits on intellectual property rights and artist rights, 2018-present.

Pro bono constitutional law advocacy for non-profits, including First Amendment rights, 2000-2004.

Judicial Law Clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, 2004-2006.

Head of Legal for a strategy and exhibitions partner for art museums in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, 2021-2025.

Updated August 2026