About
Bio
has been an active North Carolina painter, educator, cultural advocate, and historic preservationist for over 40 years.
Wilson’s paintings of the North Carolina landscape are currently on long-term exhibition in the House of Representatives Chamber in the North Carolina Legislative Building, The North Carolina Museum of History, and the Raleigh office of Senator Thom Tillis, all in the Capital District in Raleigh, NC. J. Chris Wilson’s North Carolina landscape paintings and other art work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the Southeast including The Albany Museum of Art, The Burroughs-Chapin Museum of Art, The Spartanburg Museum of Art, The Fayetteville Museum of Art, The Greenville Museum of Art and in exhibitions at Blue Spiral Gallery, The Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art and in the office of the lieutenant governor. Wilson has been represented by Somerhill Gallery, ERL Gallery, City Art Gallery, Flanders Art Gallery, and Carteret Contemporary Art Gallery. Wilson’s paintings are part of public, corporate, and private collections including R. J. Reynolds, Poyner and Spruill, Rocky Mount Medical Park, Preservation/NC, Willis N. Hackney Library, Highlands Country Club, The Lodge on St. Simons Island, GA, Wilson County Public Library, Braswell Memorial Library, Purdue Pharmaceuticals and in well over 200 private collections in the United States, England, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
Wilson was on the faculty of Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina from 1974-2012. From 2012-2015 he was Barton College’s first artist in residence and was awarded professor emeritus status beginning in 2012. Wilson was awarded the Jefferson-Pilot Faculty Member of the Year for 2010-2011, the Sears-Roebuck Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award in 1990, Visiting Professor of Art at Aichi Shukutoku University in Nagoya, Japan, in September 1994-January 1995, sabbaticals and creative releases in 1990, 1993, 2003-4, 2008, and 2011-2012. Wilson has served as Chair of the Department of Art, Director of the Barton Museum, Regional Director of The Scholastic Art Awards for Eastern North Carolina, and the Curator of the Paula W. Patterson Collection at Barton College.
Wilson has been involved in symposia, community presentations, and publications on art, decorative arts, and historic preservation and has engaged in extensive community service including serving on the boards of Edgecombe County Cultural Arts Council, The Arts Council of Wilson, The Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County, the Board of Advisors of Preservation North Carolina, the Board of Directors of Preservation North Carolina, the Board of the Blount Bridgers Museum/Hobson Pittman Memorial Foundation and the Historic Preservation Commission for Wilmington, North Carolina. Wilson’s contribution to historic preservation was further recognized with a Gertrude S. Carraway Award, from The Preservation Foundation of North Carolina for 2011.
Wilson is originally from Waycross and St. Simons Island, Georgia. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia, where he also completed post-graduate work, with Lamar Dodd as his major professor. Wilson is married to Kathleen and has a son Matthew and a daughter Singleton.