Adam Daley Wilson - Appellate Law and Public Interest Advocacy

PUBLIC INTEREST AND RULE OF LAW ADVOCACY WORK

2024-2025 Overview (Updated Draft Aug 2025)

Current Legal, Public Interest Law, and Advocacy Focus:

(1) Lawyer and law firm harm to the local rule of law; and

(2) Lawyer and law firm exploitation of mental illness stigma in courts, as one example.

The current focus is on documenting evidence and the resulting consequences when (a) certain attorneys and certain law firms (b) in small legal markets (c) decide to engage in intentional repeated behaviors that are harmful (d) not just to the opposing party in a single case — but also are harmful (e) to the entire rule of law in that local legal ecosystem.

Current Related Conceptual Art and Art Theory Focus:

(1) Post-theory art as a framework for post-conceptual text-based art as activist art; and

(2) Artist-placed public document art, as one example of post-theory art as activist art.

The current focus is on developing a text-based conceptual art practice that relates to the above, including by (a) making evidence of misconduct transparent and (b) making consequences transparent, so that (c) members of the general public who are otherwise unable to see the misconduct are provided with facts from which they may make their own interpretations and draw their own conclusions, consistent with art theories relating to artist-creation and viewer-recipient-interpretation.

Here, currently, the practice focus is on artist-placed public document art, as one kind of post-theory activist art, that relates to and presents issues of (1) verifiable evidence of lawyer and law firm exploitation of mental illness and mental illness stigma; and presents issues of (2) the resulting consequences — that is, how such exploitation in courts, by attorneys as officers of the courts, harms not just the opposing party, but also harms the local rule of law.

It is anticipated that in late 2025 and 2026 the practice will expand into other areas of verifiable misconduct by local lawyers and local law firms, in a given local rule of law ecosystem, including misuse of procedural rules and motions practice that degrade the local rule of law for attorney self-gain.

Under both prevailing theories of art and theories of law, the practice appears to fit two frameworks at the same time: (1) art-as-law and also (2) law-as-art.

Most Recent Solo Show Exploring These Areas of Focus

My most recent solo conceptual art show explored some of the above points — This Is Post-Theory Art — June 6 - July 18, Engage Projects Gallery Chicago.

The show was recently reviewed by New City Art in Chicago; the link to the review is here and relevant excerpts are below:

“This is Post-Theory Art is an exploration of how to reclaim fine arts status [from AI] and protect the creativity behind the label “artist.” . . . . As the works marinate, the weight of uniquely human expression crystalizes in every semi-contradiction . . . . “This is Post-Theory Art” is a practical expression . . . . The works cry out with renewed aura from the hands of its creator, Adam Daley Wilson, a lawyer turned artist . . . .Through the accompanying writings from Wilson, Post-Theory Art is “theory-making by an artist that is not just cognitive but also emotional and sensory-felt—landing in a viewer’s head, heart, and body all at once.” . . . . An interplay between an artist’s effect and a viewer’s affect. Wilson’s “Artist-Placed Document” series is a time-based emotive process for processing the work of adding art theory to institutional circulation through the court system, modifying the course of legal rights. [The displayed legal documents], printed, wrinkled, and marked up [show] the long process of securing verdicts through the justice system. A symbol of change, [they] taunt AI to create something of similar likeness . . . . [The works] extend legal remixing into graffiti-like illegible musings . . . . [T]he works are journal entries on the state of our contemporary society. Wilson’s work answers how and why to make contemporary art, but [leaves for another day] what tomorrow’s art should feel like . . . . [The Gallery] Engage Projects . . . blows the presentation out of the water, choosing to use the artist’s staple gun to hang the works. In the AI age, the curator [is also] the artist, and more broadly, all of humanity, if we hope to retain creative liberty. Adam Daley Wilson: This is Post-Theory Art is on view at Engage Projects, 864 North Ashland [Chicago], through July 18 [2025].

Updated May 2025 — Gallery Press Release:

This Is Post-Theory Art

Adam Daley Wilson

June 6 – July 18, 2025

ENGAGE Projects is pleased to present This Is Post Theory Art, a solo exhibition by painter, performance artist, and art theorist Adam Daley Wilson. The show’s visual and text-based pieces propose—first—that such a thing as Post-Theory Art may be seen in relation to conceptual art—and second—it can be defined as theory-making by an artist that is not just cognitive but also emotional and sensory-felt—landing in a viewer’s head, heart, and body all at once. Please join us on Friday, June 6th 5-7pm for the opening of This Is Post-Theory Art.

The show also proposes that one example of possible art practices in Post-Theory Art is “artist-placed public document art”—an artist creates a theory of public interest, places it into a court—art-as-law—and the court’s response lands not just in the heads, hearts, and lived experiences of the participants, but also in members of the public, if the public issue resonates.

In all of this, Post-Theory Art is proposed as human: When an artist makes a work with their head, heart, and body—all three—and when a viewer then experiences it themselves through all three, then perhaps this is a special human connection that AI is unable to do. If so, Post-Theory Art, by communicating theories through the emotional and sensorial, may be a way to preserve our human theory-making in this new time when AI can now make theories too.

The show presents three types of work: (1) Large-scale oil-stick “inscribed paintings” and “new cave paintings” with layers of text in the artist’s loose handwriting, part of the artist’s personal writing system; (2) precise visual-text pieces; and (3) smaller works that bring together the elements of the show. Daley Wilson has also researched and written a number of informal articles about Post-Theory Art that can be searched on Google / Bing.

Daley Wilson is a self-taught artist with degrees from Stanford Law and U. Penn. His work draws from his self-study of conceptual art history, text-based art in other cultures and times, semiotics, and art theory. He makes his work during his creative hypomanias that arise from his mental illness of bipolar 1. This is his third solo show. The first two were “Must See” by Artforum (Chicago, 2021, 2023). Most recently, his work was selected for EXPO Chicago public art (2025). He practices law (constitutional, public interest), mentors artists pro bono, and serves on non-profit boards (academia, local parks, and mental illness stigma advocacy run by teens).

More details below.

Update May 2025

Current public art — via the EXPO Chicago international art fair and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs:

We All Like To Look Away Sometimes (I Feel So Much Better Now)

Click here for link

Update March 2025 — some current areas of art and law advocacy:

Mental Illness Stigma Public Interest Advocacy — click here

Lawyer Misconduct Public Interest Advocacy — click here

Recent News Articles About Public Advocates In The Mental Health Policy Space

New York Times, May 7, 2025 —https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/nyregion/nyc-public-advocate-rajkumar-sooknanan-mental-health.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FU8._VuC.BsGahltJag78&smid=url-share

Prior Health-Related Non-Profit Board Service

• Past Board Member, Peaks Island Health Center, Portland Maine, 2012-2013. The Health Center’s mission is “to support the continuing operation of the Center in connection with Maine Medical Partners so that our community can access high quality health care close to home. We also give scholarships to islanders who are pursuing healthcare related education, organize vaccination clinics on Peaks, and facilitate educational programming.” 

• Past Board Member, The Yellow Tulip Project, Portland Maine, 2020-2023, Board Chair 2023. Founded and run by college and high school students, The Yellow Tulip Project’s “mission is to smash the stigma surrounding mental illness and to build a community of people who realize that hope happens when youth and community leaders work together. We hope that someday mental illness will be as normal to talk about as any physical illness, and are dedicated to making this goal a reality.”

Prior Art-Related Non-Profit Board Service

• Past Member of the Board of Trustees, The Institute For Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA.edu), 2019-2021. An international PhD program, IDSVA’s “mission is to operate a school of graduate studies providing education in philosophy, aesthetics, art theory, and similar disciplines related to the visual arts. The mission includes the provision of doctoral studies to holders of the MFA or the master’s degree in a related field, the conferring of PhD degrees, and otherwise providing education and training related to the arts.”

Some of the Underlying Art Theory

• What is a definition of Post-Theory Art? — Post-Theory Art may be defined as a category of conceptual art where the artist makes theories as text-based art that also work as activist art and performance art about public interest issues.

• What is a definition of Artist-Placed Public Document Art? — Artist-Placed Public Document Art may be defined as: an artist makes a theory as text-based art, places it within a legal system, and that act causes an institutional response—the court and the parties are now required to respond. Artist-Placed Public Document Art is art that is also a valid legal document that combines text-based art, conceptual art, activist art, and performance art with public interest law and public advocacy.