William T. Wiley and the Slant Step: All on the Line

Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis

January 27 – May 7, 2022

To understand the enormity of William T. Wiley’s work is to realize we may never fully grasp it —just the kind of pop-Zen paradox that Wiley enjoyed. This rich complexity comes, in part, from Wiley’s upbringing: He grew up in Richland, Washington, with a father who poured concrete for the Manhattan Project, and his high school art teacher introduced his students to the indigenous Yakama Nation. Early on, Wiley understood the great and terrible power of human ingenuity and contact. Wiley entered the California School of Fine Arts in 1958, graduated with a master’s degree in 1962, and began teaching at the University of California, Davis. Wiley’s artistic sensibility reflects duality. He cultivated a balance between land and culture, embracing the redwoods of Marin County, where he lived, as well as the ideas of John Cage. Wiley’s embrace of coexisting truths is reflected in his methodology of using symbol language to express philosophical, environmental and psychological questions. This exhibition followsWiley’s journey of maturation through early experiments, his seminal collaboration with Bruce Nauman on the Slant Step, and the watercolor visions of Edenic creation for which he’s best remembered.