As an avowed eco-feminist, Faith Wilding’s work addresses the deterioration of the natural world in her lifetime, specifically in South America and her native Paraguay. She depicts symmetrical dualities: up and down, in and out, open and closed, evoking mystical, personal, and esoteric narratives. The works express interconnectedness and spiritual exuberance, while exploring visionary iconology of the energy and force of growth.
Wilding’s practice emerged at the forefront of Feminist Art in Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s. For the last 50 years, Wilding has lived as an activist and artist, with a fierce commitment to eco feminism. Wilding was a co-initiator of the Feminist Art Programs alongside Miriam Shapiro and Judy Chicago. The Feminist Art Program produced Womanhouse, an art installation and performance space focusing on collaborative and feminist ideas. Fueled by the explosion of female-focused work and research, Womanhouse sought to move beyond the predominantly male-centric art history. Wilding’s work continues to interrogate societal narratives, challenging the status quo in art-making, life, and politics.
Faith Wilding’s (b. 1943) work has been exhibited extensively over the last five decades including the seminal survey WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, organized by Cornelia Butler, which traveled from the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) to the National Museum of Women (Washington DC), PS1 Contemporary Art Center (Long Island), and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Additionally, Wilding’s work has been exhibited at Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid); Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow); Bronx Museum of Art (New York); The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); the Armand Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); The Drawing Center (New York); Documenta X (Kassel); the Singapore Art Museum. Publications include By Our Own Hands: The History of the Women Artists Movement in Southern California, 1970-76 (Double X, 1977) and Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices! (Autonomedia, 2003). Wilding was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 and has been the recipient of two individual media grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. Her work was included in “Fiber: Sculpture 1960 to Present” exhibition that originated at the ICA in Boston; her Crocheted Environment, 1972/1995, was shown in “Art Textiles” at The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, England (where it graced the cover of the catalog); and documentation of the The Sacrifice (1971) was featured in “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A.”, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Her work was recently on view at the Kestner Gesellschaft (Hanover) for the exhibition Where Art Might Happen: The Early Years of CalArts curated by Philip Kaiser and Christina Végh, travelling to Kunsthaus (Graz). Wilding lives and works in Rhode Island.
