Fred Wilson (born 1954) is an American installation artist of African-American and Caribbean heritage. His work questions colonial assumptions about history, culture and race, prompting viewers to consider the social and historical narratives behind the Western canon.
He trained at Purchase College, State University of New York, and in the 1970s worked as a freelance museum educator for several New York institutions. From the late 1980s he created «Rooms with a View», mock museums showing how institutions can reinforce racist beliefs, consciously or not.
His best-known project, Mining the Museum (1992), reshuffled the collection of the Maryland Historical Society to highlight the history of African Americans and Native Americans in Maryland. At the 2003 Venice Biennale he showed Speak of Me as I Am, on the representation of Africans in Venetian culture.
His legacy lies in turning the museum itself into artistic material and showing that a change of context changes the meaning of objects.