Jim Richard Wilson was an American art curator who was the founding director of the Opalka Gallery. He served as gallery director and art history lecturer for The Sage Colleges for over 20 years. Previously, he was with the State University of New York as assistant director of University-wide Programs in the Arts. He has been consultant to and lectured for numerous arts organizations and museums and was Director of the Peter S. Loonam Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York for ten years prior to relocating to the Capital District of New York State. Wilson has been curating shows and writing on art since 1975. He has earned and maintained a reputation for mounting museum quality shows. Wilson was an artist whose art work has appeared in more than a hundred exhibitions nationwide, including over a dozen solo and small group shows. His work is in numerous collections including: The State University at Stony Brook, PepsiCo, International Specialties Inc., Mariposa Luminosa, and ArtPool, Budapest. The most recent article discussing Wilson's exhibition history appeared on April 20, 2014, in the Sunday edition of the Daily Gazette. He died of cancer on July 13, 2014.
Exhibitions
Wilson is best known for his work on post World War II American Art and Jewish history. Among the exhibitions for which he has been responsible are:
Dona Ann McAdams: Some Women the first career overview of the work of this street photographer who has been the recipient of the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Award from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Bessie and Obie Awards. Her work on performance art was the subject of an Aperture monograph, Caught in the Act. The exhibition included over three dozen works, 35 of which were reproduced in the catalogue. Among the texts in the catalog were essays by Eleanor Heartney, Fabienne Waring, and Wilson.
An American Shtetl: Jewish History and Community in Troy, New York an in-depth multifaceted exploration and narrative of a particularly significant Jewish community from the mid-19th into the 21st centuries. This was the first attempt to organize and make available and document the history and centrality of the Jewish community to the prosperity of Troy, a which played a crucial role in the industrial and educational development of the United States.
A Place by the Sea, including the work of 4 African American abstract artists associated with the Eastville community in Sag Harbor, New York. The exhibit included work by Nanette Carter, Gregory Coates, Alvin Loving, and Frank Wimberley. First mounted at The Sage Colleges in Albany, New York, the exhibit traveled to Christiane Nienaber Contemporary Art in NYC and Arlene Bujese Gallery in East Hampton, New York.
Llave: A Key to the Secret on Sephardic history and experience in the New World. This project on the history and culture of Spanish Jews in the Western Hemisphere built on years of research and included presentations by Nan Rubin, project director of The Hidden Jews of New Mexico, Flory Jagoda, noted Sephardic songwriter and singer, Isabelle Medina Sandoval, poet, Robert Michael Esformes, cantor and musician, among others. The publication created for this project was requested by the Library of Congress. The information gathered by Llave served as a resource for University of Almeiria's Sephardic Studies Center among others.