Megan Wilson

Megan Wilson
Artist Megan Wilson in her installation "Home" San Francisco, CA
Born	1969 Billings, Montana
Nationality	American
Education	MFA San Francisco Art Institute, BFA University of Oregon
Known for	Street Art, Conceptual Art, Installation Art, Public Art, Quilling
Awards	Gunk Foundation, Artadia, Asian Cultural Council, The San Francisco Foundation, Ford Foundation, Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series, San Francisco Art Commission Individual Artist Award, Zellerbach Family Foundation

Megan Wilson is an American visual artist, writer, and activist based in San Francisco. Known for her large-scale installations, public projects, and street art, she incorporates a broad range of pop culture methodologies and aesthetics to address conceptual interests that include home, homelessness, social and economic justice, anti-capitalism, impermanence and generosity. Wilson has been a practitioner of Buddhism and Vipassanā meditation since 2003, often interweaving these practices into her work.

Megan Wilson was born and raised in Montana. Her father was an oil and gas attorney and partner with the Crowley, Haughey, Hanson, Toole and Dietrich firm in Billings, Montana for over 30 years until he left in 2002 to serve as Carbon County Attorney prior to his death in 2008. Her mother was Canadian and worked as an ophthalmic technician; she died in 2015. Wilson’s parents lived in San Francisco in the sixties where her father clerked for Judge James R. Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Wilson moved out at the age of 16 and worked at Burger King her senior year of high school to support herself. She received her BFA from the University of Oregon in 1992 and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997. She has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts.

Wilson and collaborator Christopher Statton launched the public project Better Homes & Gardens Today in fall 2014, creating a limited edition of 300 pairs of hand-painted signs with the word “Home” in different languages accompanied by a flower. Wilson and Statton state the project’s goals to: “1) Heighten awareness around 'home' and the realities of homelessness; 2) Cultivate a dialog within communities and amongst disparate groups – especially with those in the tech sector who are having a significant impact on housing instability in the Bay Area - about the funding and policy change that is needed to help end homelessness; and 3) To raise money to benefit the Gubbio Project, the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, and At The Crossroads, organizations working to address homelessness in San Francisco.”