James Wilson

John Leroux, ONB, PhD, is an art historian, teacher, former architect, and the Director of the Marion McCain Institute for Atlantic Canadian Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. He has authored, edited, or contributed to more than 20 books, including A Vision in Wood and Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University with Thaddeus Holownia, and Wabanaki Modern: The Artistic Legacy of the 1960s “Micmac Indian Craftsmen” with Emma Hassencahl-Perley. He has received the CMA Award for Outstanding Achievement (Research) and the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award, and was a team member of Canada’s entry at the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture. James Wilson has worked as a photographer for more than forty years, using large format cameras, both film and digital. Wilson is best known for his landscapes, still lifes, and black and white portrait studies. His work has been the subject of fifteen solo exhibitions and has been featured in numerous group exhibitions. His photographs are also included in many corporate, private, and public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Canada, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and Canadian Embassies and Consulates in Europe, North Africa, and the United States.

“Wilson shares portraits of the very old and the very young, of the socially prominent and of the outcasts. All of his models are photographed using only natural light against a neutral grey background, a leveling effect that takes nothing away from the inherent dignity of each subject.”