An Artist Who Bends Stone

Darrell Wilksí career exists at the intersection of fine art and pop culture. 

Heís exhibited mixed media work in New York and Santa Fe. Heís a past winner of NYC Creative Timeís MTA Arts for Transit Billboard Project Competition.

His 2018 collaboration with Landfall Press of Santa Fe resulted in a series of lithographs collected by the Milwaukee Museum of Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum of Oberlin College, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University.

He served on the Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Film Festival from 2011-2014.

Wilks is the director, writer and producer of the 2002 feature-length documentary Hip Hop Hope debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival and winning Best Documentary at the H2o Film Festival at The Bronx Museum. It was selected by the 2002 International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam, 2003 Norwegian Documentary Film Festival, 2003 Paris Cinema Film Festival, 2003 Rome Independent  Film Festival, 2003 Newport Beach Film Festival, 2003 Atlanta Film Festival, 2003 Denver Pan-African Film Festival, 2004 Reel Music at the Portland Art Museum, and CityScape 03 Arts Festival Rotterdam.

Before moving to Santa Fe in 2010 he had a long career on Madison Avenue as an Art Director and Creative Director. 

At J. Walter Thompson he rose from the rank of junior art director to Associate Creative Director and Vice-President, being awarded Art Director of the Year, and contributing to award-winning campaigns for Nestle, Kodak, and Samsonite.

He facilitated art classes for children in the New York City homeless shelter system as an Art Start volunteer.

Darrell Wilks has a BFA from Colorado State University and studied northern Renaissance art at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, Austria.