Adrian Wilson (artist)

Adrian Wilson (1964 – present) is a British artist and photographer based in New York.
Biography.
Early Art Career.
Wilson studied HND Design (photography) at Blackpool and The Fylde College, where he was one of the first artists to use a Quantel Paintbox He was included in the "Art & Computers" exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in 1988, wrote for Computer Images magazine and creating digital art for clients, most notably the cover of Gold Mother by recording artists James.
Photography.
Wilson specializes in photographing interiors and was the photographer for all Mondiale Publishing magazines between 1988 and 2000. In 2004, Wilson moved to New York, where he shoots for clients including LVMH The New York Times and Architectural Digest.
Galleries and Art Installations.
Adrian Wilson salvaged a large collection of art from Manchester's textile warehouses in the 1980s, part of which is now displayed in the Science & Industry Museum in Manchester and the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore.
Wilson has given various talks on the collection, including at Typecon and as an expert on the Antiques Roadshow when it visited Manchester. In 2015, Wilson created "The Inutilious Retailer", an interactive art exhibit which was open for 10 months on Ludlow Street, NYC and won a Store of the Year award.
In 2018, Wilson created the "Space X Gallery" which he hid above a fake Boring Company start-up office in a derelict building in the Lower East Side, a one-man "Introspective" show about Jerry Saltz and a Native American art exhibition titled "Artonement".
Wilson opened the first gallery in Jean Michel Basquiat's last studio and home at 57 Great Jones St, NY. The "Same Old Gallery" showcased the work of Al Diaz, co creator with Basquait of the famous "SAMO" graffiti tag and an artist that Wilson had already been collaborating with on several murals.
Art.
Wilson is mostly known for his street art, specifically his makeover of NYC street and subway signs to honor icons such as David Bowie, Prince. Eddie Van Halen, Aretha Franklin, which the MTA made into a permanent tribute. Wilson never signs his work and only admitted the works were his following his attainment of U.S. citizenship in 2020.
Following the $450 million sale of the much restored Salvator Mundi and an $800,000 complete set of Supreme skateboard decks, Wilson created the "Supreme Mundi", which in 2019 sold as the world's most expensive skateboard.
In response to COVID-19, Wilson created several pandemic-related pieces (now in permanent collections at the Royal College of Art and V&A Museum) and collaborated with Heidi Hankaniemi to create a "Hazmask suit and dress" to promote mask wearing which went viral.