Live with Martha Wilson

New York based artist and gallery director Martha Wilson gives a virtual Zoom talk presented in conjunction with Griffin Art Project's exhibition Now Bulletin: Artworks, Letters and Printed Matter from the Garry Neill Kennedy Collection 1968 - 2019. Wilson talks about her experiences as a young artist in Halifax in the 1970’s where she became involved with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s revolutionary arts community, spearheaded by college president Garry Neil Kennedy, who was, at the time, in the midst of transforming the institution into a forerunner of art education. From there, Wilson will survey her post-Halifax years in New York City, beginning with the founding and evolution of Franklin Furnace and ending with her current work and artistic practice.

Currently based in New York city, Martha Wilson is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director, whose innovative photographic and video works explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformations, and “invasions” of other people’s personae. Wilson completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Wilmington College in Ohio, and her graduate studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia. Wilson taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to New York City in 1974. Two years later she founded and continues to direct Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion and preservation of artists’ books, installation art, video, online and performance art.