Wiley (1937–2021) was born in Bedford, Indiana, and raised in Indiana, Texas and Richland, Washington. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts (later known as the San Francisco Art Institute), earning his BFA in 1960 and MFA in 1962. Soon afterward, Wiley joined the UC Davis faculty, becoming part of the groundbreaking art department that included Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest and Wayne Thiebaud. Associated with Bay Area Funk and emerging Conceptual art, Wiley rejected rigid distinctions between media, combining drawing, painting, sculpture, found objects, film, music, language and performance. His enigmatic works use puns, recurring symbols and everyday materials to address philosophical, political and environmental concerns. An influential teacher, Wiley profoundly shaped artists including Bruce Nauman, Deborah Butterfield and Stephen Kaltenbach. His work appeared in Documenta, the Venice Biennale and Whitney Biennial. In 2009, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized the major retrospective What’s It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect.
