Issy Wilson
Issy Wilson is a London-based artist originally from Chicago. Her practice is deeply rooted in the natural world, with a focus on drawing, painting, textiles, and research. She gathers inspiration by observing her surroundings from the seemingly mundane to the extraordinary.
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Selected Works
Biography
b. 1997
Royal College of Art—Masters of Painting 2024
University of Michigan—Bachelor of Fine Art 2020
Issy Wilson is a London and US based artist originally from Chicago. Her practice is deeply rooted in the natural world, with a focus on drawing, painting, textiles, and research. She gathers inspiration by observing her environment and applying the processes of our ecosystems to that of a studio practice.
Issy embarked on a transformative journey along the Appalachian Trail and completed this 2,200-mile hike in 2022. This six-month-long adventure profoundly shifted her art practice from a thesis on Pink and feminism, to an investigation into the dendritic and connective tissues of the forest. Her work explores the structures of roots, trees, mycelium, lichen, and mosses, examining how they mirror blood vessels, neurons, rivers, and mountains in their search to form strong organic connections. Her art studio has become an environment of its own, with pieces evolving symbiotically.
This investigation has manifested in various forms: drawings and paintings in the studio, Flower People and murals across the United States, and the Artist Quilt, a collaborative project involving 89 artists worldwide. Currently, her focus is on creating a more sustainable art practice: using inks, natural pigments, cotton fibers, and handmade paper. These paintings, drawings, and textiles have created a new anthology of works that have been exhibited internationally.
On April 24, 2025, Issy will be opening her first solo-show in Wilmette, IL at the Patrician Gallery.
Artists Statement
Rhizomes
My work is an exploration of botanic interconnectedness, inspired by the concept of the rhizome. Much like the rhizomatic structures that grow underground, my paintings evolve by following processes that resist uniformity and evolve from material experimentation. This exhibition functions as a collection of ideas that will continue to grow, transform, and branch off into new forms and interpretations.
The rhizome is a decentralized root-like structure that grows in an unpredictable manner. It operates as food-storage for a plant and for animals (e.g. ginger, turmeric, lotus-root) and as a form of asexual reproduction by growing its own shoots and roots. Vegetative propagation is a system I follow in my own studio–allowing the “off-cuts” of pieces to grow and shift into one another. In this way, the studio functions as an organism and ecosystem.
Materials like ink and charcoal (burnt, organic matter) catalyze this process, encouraging moments of spontaneity within a set system. I am fascinated by the tension between dendritic, flowing forms and more rigid, grid-like structures. However, the standard grid is a flexible framework that can be disrupted. Its rigidity is questioned when we understand it as a net or web that blurs distinction between organic and geometric. This is additionally challenged in the materials that form a “standard” painting–woven canvas stretched over wooden frames.
Ultimately, Rhizomes showcases the interrelated collaboration between myself, the materials, and the pieces in this exhibition to highlight our congruity with the natural world.