Richard Wilson
Painting // Raleigh
Richard Wilson is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning fine artist hailing from Robersonville, NC. Presently, Richard Wilson resides and operates from his private studio in Wake County. Over the span of a remarkable 30-year career, he has excelled as a prolific professional artist, versatile freelance and corporate graphic designer, and dedicated college art educator. Notably, Richard Wilson undertakes numerous commission portraits. An extraordinary milestone in his career occurred when he made history in North Carolina by becoming the first African American artist to have a portrait painting publicly displayed in a North Carolina courthouse.
Richard Wilson, Everything is Practice, pastel on Premier archival sanded pastel paper
Richard Wilson has also received widespread recognition in various publications. In November 2018, The Wall Street Journal featured him and acclaimed writer Daniel Grant dubbed him “one of the most successful artists you’re likely to meet.” In 2016, Blue Moon Brewing Company selected Richard Wilson as one of the 20 Up-and-Coming Artists in the United States to design a Limited-Edition label for their 20th Anniversary Blue Moon Artist Series bottles.
His work has also found its way into the realms of movies and television, featuring in productions such as NBC’s “This Is Us,” the movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” Netflix’s “Raising Dion” Season 2, “The Trap,” and Starz’s “BMF.” In 2018, the University of Georgia commissioned Wilson to paint the portrait of Mary Frances Early, the first African American to graduate from the institution. More recently, Wilson has been commissioned to paint six additional portraits for the university, including those of Dr. Shirley Mathis McBay. His portfolio also includes portraits of Dr. Harold A. Black, Dr. Mary Blackwell Diallo, and Dr. Kerry Rushin Miller, the first African American freshmen to graduate with an undergraduate degree from UGA. Additionally, he was commissioned to paint the first two African Americans to attend UGA, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
Richard Wilson’s beloved Southern Girl series has captured the attention of two museums within the state of North Carolina. His original pastel painting Under the Southern Blue Sky was recently acquired by the Greenville Museum of Arts, and the NC Museum of Arts now features his Southern Girl + Landscape series in their gift shop. Notably, the International Tennis Hall of Fame has added one of Wilson’s celebrated Shadow series paintings, titled In His Shadow–Arthur Ashe, to their permanent collection. This particular piece portrays a young boy inspired by the tennis legend Arthur Ashe.
Richard Wilson’s work is finding homes in collections across the globe, with notable collectors including luminaries such as Hank Aaron, Tina Knowles, Gladys Knight, Tom Joyner, Ed Gordon, Matt Kemp, Nicholas Castellanos, Cam Johnson, Judge James Andrew Wynn, and many more.