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David Wells

MFA

Gallery Director

Director, Painted Forest

800.444.4861 x 3252

davidwells@edgewood.edu

David Wells is Gallery Director at Edgewood College in charge of the art gallery exhibition program and college collections since August 2013. He previously served as Executive Director of Edenfred, the creative residency program of the Terry Family Foundation from 2004 through 2010. While in this capacity he developed the arts residency program and a statewide forum for art curators, Curators Conversations, now moved to Edgewood College. Wells also serves as Director of Ernest Hüpeden's Painted Forest and Study Center, Edgewood College’s restored folk art site in Valton, WI.

Wells has pursued interdisciplinary interests as an exhibiting artist, independent curator and arts administrator for over 30 years. In 2014, he curated Reflections: Madison for the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center and is also the curator of visual art Exhibitions for Sundance Cinemas Madison. David currently serves as an advisor to the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts & Letters and on the WI Visual Arts Achievement Awards selection panel. He previously served on the Madison Cultural Plan Steering Committee, and is a past Board President of the Wormfarm Institute in Reedsburg, WI.

As an practicing artist, David has exhibited across the United States as well as in Mexico, Japan and Czech Republic, with numerous solo installation Exhibitions in Southern California and Wisconsin. Recent Exhibitions include Nonstop (West Washington Train Depot), Red (Overture Center for the Arts), Stacked (Madison Public Library), and a solo exhibit of prints at the Madison Mayor’s Office (2012-14).

Wells has curated exhibitions for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; the Design Gallery, the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection and Memorial Union Galleries (all UW-Madison); the Dubuque Museum of Art, IA; and Idyllwild Arts, Center for Indigenous Arts, Mt. San Antonio College and several other college and civic galleries in the Southern CA/Los Angeles region.