New City Art 50 2020 - Artist Selection Folayemi Wilson
“After a two-decade career in two-dimensional design and art direction, Folayemi (Fo) Wilson turned to 3D, studied furniture design and art history, and began making new forms and spaces. Her 2019 “Dark Matter” exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center expanded the setting of Southern vernacular architecture to new realms, not only centering the hypothetical occupants, likely Black Americans, but presenting a possibility of a celestial world of healing. Her community-centric work has been possible in Chicago where she started blkHaUS studios with Norman Teague in 2016 to use design as an agent of change to uplift marginalized communities.
Art 50 was written by Kerry Cardoza with Amanda Dee, Ciera McKissick, Zakkiyyah Najeebah, Amanda Roach, Alisa Swindell and Holly Warren. All photos by Nathan Keay with photo assistance from Joe Crawford.