Adam Daley Wilson is also a Gallery-Represented Conceptual Artist.

Why do I write legal briefs for law firms as a freelancer? I left the full-time practice of law in 2017 after unexpectedly becoming a conceptual artist represented by a commercial gallery.

Represented by Engage Projects Gallery in Chicago since 2020. The gallery represents about 20 mid-career multidisciplinary conceptual artists from several countries.

It places one to two of my pieces into prominent contemporary art, text-based art, conceptual art, and post-conceptual art collections each year.

My first two solo shows have been selected ‘Must See’ in Chicago by Artforum Magazine (New York), and my most recent show, in April 2023 — This Is Text Based Art — was also selected as one of the best shows aligned with the international EXPO Chicago Art Fair by Mousse Magazine (Milan).

May 2025 Updates:

Most recent public art selection — here.

Next solo show — This Is Post-Theory Art — June 6 to July 18, 2025, Engage Projects Gallery Chicago — here and here.

Above: Artist talk about art, law, and stigma with artist Kelly Matthews, Mental Health Awareness Month, Chicago, 2023. Courtesy Engage Projects Gallery Chicago.

Gallery press release for next solo show:

This Is Post-Theory Art

Adam Daley Wilson

June 6 – July 18, 2025

ENGAGE Projects is pleased to present This Is Post Theory Art, a solo exhibition by painter, performance artist, and art theorist Adam Daley Wilson. The show’s visual and text-based pieces propose—first—that such a thing as Post-Theory Art may be seen in relation to conceptual art—and second—it can be defined as theory-making by an artist that is not just cognitive but also emotional and sensory-felt—landing in a viewer’s head, heart, and body all at once. Please join us on Friday, June 6th 5-7pm for the opening of This Is Post-Theory Art.

The show also proposes that one example of possible art practices in Post-Theory Art is “artist-placed public document art”—an artist creates a theory of public interest, places it into a court—art-as-law—and the court’s response lands not just in the heads, hearts, and lived experiences of the participants, but also in members of the public, if the public issue resonates.

In all of this, Post-Theory Art is proposed as human: When an artist makes a work with their head, heart, and body—all three—and when a viewer then experiences it themselves through all three, then perhaps this is a special human connection that AI is unable to do. If so, Post-Theory Art, by communicating theories through the emotional and sensorial, may be a way to preserve our human theory-making in this new time when AI can now make theories too.

The show presents three types of work: (1) Large-scale oil-stick “inscribed paintings” and “new cave paintings” with layers of text in the artist’s loose handwriting, part of the artist’s personal writing system; (2) precise visual-text pieces; and (3) smaller works that bring together the elements of the show. Daley Wilson has also researched and written a number of informal articles about Post-Theory Art that can be searched on Google / Bing.

Daley Wilson is a self-taught artist with degrees from Stanford Law and U. Penn. His work draws from his self-study of conceptual art history, text-based art in other cultures and times, semiotics, and art theory. He makes his work during his creative hypomanias that arise from his mental illness of bipolar 1. This is his third solo show. The first two were “Must See” by Artforum (Chicago, 2021, 2023). Most recently, his work was selected for EXPO Chicago public art (2025). He practices law (constitutional, public interest), mentors artists pro bono, and serves on non-profit boards (academia, local parks, and mental illness stigma advocacy run by teens).

February 2025 Updates — Current art theory and philosophy of art research: Post-Theory art and Artist-Placed Public Document Art.

Current working definition of Post-Theory Art:

Post-Theory Art may be defined as occuring when an artist uses thinking and writing about theories to make text-based art, and then places that art into public institutions, such as public courts, resulting in institutional performance art and activist art that may help the public perceive issues of public importance in new ways.

Current working definition of Artist-Placed Document Art:

Artist-Placed Public Document Art may be defined as: a text-based art and conceptual art practice in which the artist files a document containing the artist’s theory—often legal in form—into a court or institutional system, compelling a response under the institution’ s own rules, and thereby creating ongoing performance art and activist art that may serve as public advocacy for issues in the public interest.

Gallery — engage-projects.com

Portfolio — adamwilsonart.com