Adam Daley Wilson - Appellate Law and Public Interest Advocacy

PUBLIC INTEREST AND RULE OF LAW ADVOCACY WORK

2023–2026 Overview

1. Test Cases About The Local Rule Of Law

Where known facts and evidence warrant a proposal for an extension of existing law at the local or state level, Adam Daley Wilson brings test cases as both a lawyer and as a conceptual text-based artist.

When a lawyer brings a test case — also known as an issue of first impression or an open question — the lawyer uses the long-established method in the American legal system for presenting arguments to courts about how the law should develop in new areas. This judicial method operates alongside, but distinct from, the legislative process as a recognized pathway for shaping the future direction of the law.

Beginning in 2023, Daley Wilson has brought test cases addressing conduct that harms the local rule of law in micro legal systems — not the rule of law at the national level, but rather at the level of individual states, counties, and courts — where the general public most often interacts with the law, lawyers, and law firms.

The two areas of focus from 2023 through 2026 are: (1) repeated attorney exploitation of mental illness harming the local rule of law; and (2) repeated attorney misconduct, both substantive and procedural, harming the local rule of law.

2. Public Interest Transparency So The Local General Public May Know

The test cases also serve a second function: They document for the general public, and make transparent, examples of systemic attorney and law firm misconduct that harms the general public collectively. Absent such test cases, systemic harms at the local level by local attorneys and law firms cannot be seen, or known, by the general public or the press — including because in many local and state courts all court work is still only on paper, and not online.

This second function of the test cases affords the general public and the press an opportunity to be informed not only of the misconduct itself, but also of its consequences to individuals, the general public, and the local rule of law.

3. Jurisprudence and Post-Theory Art Frameworks

The practice proceeds from two theoretical foundations.

First, it is grounded in basic principles of American jurisprudence, including the norm that local legal systems — at the court, county, and state level — exist to serve the general public, not attorneys or law firms that use insider status to manipulate local law through repeated misconduct.

Second, it is grounded in art theory and post-theory art, including that public interest activist art and legal activism can take the same form. When an artist places a test case before the courts — “artist-placed public document art” — that filing sets in motion the court’s procedures, creating the potential for real-world change — development of the law, or protection of the local rule of law, or both.

Under this second theory, some types of legal filings can be both public interest legal activism and a work of conceptual art.

As an artist, Daley Wilson explored some aspects of the second theory in his third solo show in mid-2025 (Engage Projects Gallery Chicago), reviewed by a critic from New City Art (Chicago art press) in the embedded link here and as follows:

“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.

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.