Donald Roller Wilson

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Donald Roller Wilson (born November 23, 1938) is an artist who uses some unique items in his paintings, such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks, and even cigarettes. He paints in oils, in a very polished, super-realistic style, using the same techniques used by the Old Masters. He was born in Houston, Texas and is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. According to the New York Times, "Donald Roller Wilson's goofy, hallucinogenic, Old Master-style painting of monkeys, dogs and cats dressed up in antique costumes may be kitsch, but it's high-quality kitsch, like good beach reading."^[1]

Donald Roller Wilson is a painter who describes his work as a "by-product of his thoughts." According to him, he spends his "days and nights pondering the meaning of life, the state of the universe, and the Home Shopping Network. . . .More than anything, my work deals with pointlessness. It takes all the arrogance out of everything you do when you know that God is so much bigger than you are. And yet everything you are and do and see is filled with God: the grass, the asphalt, and the people fighting over Aqua Net at Wal-Mart. . . .You can make a profound intellectual statement just by basing your efforts on silliness."^{[citation needed]}

Some of the characters he has created include Cookie the Baby Orangutan, Jane the Pug Girl, Jack the Jack Russell “Terror,” Loretta the Actress Cat, Miss Dog America, and Patricia the Seeing Eye Dog of Houston.

He is also well known among celebrities such as Carrie Fisher, Jack Nicholson, Diane Sawyer, Harrison Ford, Paul Simon, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, and Robin Williams.^{[citation needed]}

He was educated at Wichita State University.

His many works hang in the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois; Whitney Museum, New York, New York; Bank of America, San Francisco, California; Coe Kerr Gallery, New York City; and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Also, notably, he was Frank Zappa's visual coordinator during the 1980s and 1990s. He produced the cover art for Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984), Francesco Zappa (1984) and Them Or Us (1984).^[2]

He taught at the University of Arkansas between 1967 - 74^[3] and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas with his wife Kathleen, also an artist. His main galleries at present are the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, the Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe, and his paintings may be collected through Peter Sahlman in New York.

[edit] Selected solo exhibitions

2002 - A Strong Night Wind, Organized and toured by the Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge, LA; toured to: Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, AZ (catalogue)
2000 The Children…Hanging Around Brenda’s Nut Farm, Usually Under the Front

Porch, but Venturing Out During the Days (And Nights) trying to Make Their Ways in Life, Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1999 Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Donald Roller Wilson – Major Works, Wright Galleries, New York, NY

1998 Meyer Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

Cookie at Sixteen, Baby Cookie, Jane, Richard, Madonna Ann, Naughty Betty and Brenda: Days and Nights at Brenda’s Nut Farm John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA Donald Roller Wilson: One Man Show, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS Donald Roller Wilson-One Man Show, Wright Galleries, New York, NY

1997 Donald Roller Wilson: Paintings, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
1996 Brides, Queens and Other Girls Gone Wrong

Wright Gallery, New York, NY

1995 Watercolor Drawings: Donald Roller Wilson, Wright Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

A Strong Night Wind, Bank of Fayetteville, Fayetteville, AR Horwitch LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Jimmy Returns to Manhattan, Wright Gallery, New York, NY

1994 Donald Roller Wilson, Wright Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
1993 Days-Nights-Events: Donald Roller Wilson, Lewallen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1992 Looking For The Virgin in the Woods (catalogue), John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Donald Roller Wilson, Fleck-Ellman Gallery, Aspen, CO Donald Roller Wilson: Looking For Tony, Lewallen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1991 Inside & Outside the House, Coe Kerr Gallery, NY
1989 Miss Dog America (catalogue) Coe Kerr Gallery, NY

Donald Roller Wilson, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson, The Oklahoma Arts Center, Norman, OK Donald Roller Wilson, The Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL Roller: The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson, University of Texas, Austin, TX

1988 Collections on the Cutting Edge: The Frito-Lay Corporation Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX

Donald Roller Wilson, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR Roller: The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson, Organized and toured by Mid-America Art Alliance, Kansas City, MO; traveled to: Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR; The Fine Art Center, Nashville, TN; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK; Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1987 Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, NY
1986 Donald Roller Wilson, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
1985 Donald Roller Wilson, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX

Donald Roller Wilson, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY

1984 Visitors to Mrs. Jenkin’s Room, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY
1982 Donald Roller Wilson, Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC

Donald Roller Wilson, Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables, FL

1981 Donald Roller Wilson, Moody Gallery, Houston, TX

Donald Roller Wilson, Marilyn Butler Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ

1979 Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), University of Fine Arts Gallery, Florida State

Donald Roller Wilson, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR (lecture and slide presentation)

1978 Donald Roller Wilson, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND (lecture and presentation of work)

Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1977 Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), Moody Gallery, Houston, TX
1976 Donald Roller Wilson, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK (lecture and presentation of work)

Donald Roller Wilson, Phillips University, Enid, OK (lecture and presentation of work)

1975 Gladys Atlas: Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), Findlay Gallery New York, NY
1974 The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson (catalogue), La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
1973 Donald Roller Wilson, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Houston, TX
1972 The Paintings of Donald Roller Wilson, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (lecture and presentation of work)
1970 Donald Roller Wilson, David Gallery, Houston, TX

Donald Roller Wilson, Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Art, Kansas City, MO Donald Roller Wilson, Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, MO Donald Roller Wilson, The City Arts Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO