Derek Wilson

Derek Wilson 1937–2012. Derek Wilson, born in Portsmouth (UK), began his career in the Royal Navy, studied briefly at Cambridge, and found his calling in the visual arts and theater. In the 1960s, he worked as a ceramicist and painter in London and participated in exhibitions at the Leicester Gallery and the Piccadilly Gallery. In the 1970s, he became involved with the Peopleshow as a lighting technician and set builder; shortly thereafter, he joined the group as a performer. With this experimental theater company, he toured Europe, South America, the U.S., and Canada. In 1977, he co-founded the theater group Jail Warehouse Company and worked with Waste of Time Theatre in England, Belgium, and the Netherlands, including at the Festival of Fools and on the Mikkery circuit.

In 1982, he settled in Amsterdam; he continued to work in theater until 1988, after which he focused on his visual art. He led a reclusive life, worked obsessively, and created an extensive body of work. Landscapes, cityscapes, interiors, flowers, portraits, nudes, and animals—he depicted the life he loved in his work. With an unerring sense of color, abstract precision, and subtle, sometimes brutal and absurd, often humorous figuration. In a variety of techniques and formats, but always: an ode to life.