Wiley standing at the top of The Tower (1990)

In his remarkable artistic practice, William T. Wiley (1937–2021) explored a wide range of media, including watercolor, painting, collage, found-object construction, sculpture, and printmaking, as well as music, performance art, theater, and film. Wiley first visited the fabricator Lippincott, Inc. in 1979, and over the next decade and a half built more than two dozen sculptures with the Lippincott shop, including large scale works like Gong, 1986, and The Tower of the No Bull Salvage, 1990. He enjoyed the close collaborative atmosphere there and the shared sense of exploration and discovery in making his work. Often staying for weeks at a time, Wiley would develop a number of sculptures concurrently and then leave detailed instructions so that fabrication could continue during his absence.. All Wiley sculptures fabricated at Lippincott were executed under a partnership agreement.

Wiley was a member of the acclaimed faculty at the UC Davis Art School in the 1960s and 1970s, which included Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson, Roy de Forest and other celebrated artists. Considered among the most influential art teachers in America, his students included Bruce Nauman, Debbie Butterfield, Richard Shaw and others that went on to international acclaim.
 
Wiley has had works appear in major exhibitions including the Venice Biennial (1980) and the Whitney Biennial (1983). The Smithsonian American Art Museum presented over 100 works in the exhibition What's It All Mean: Wiley in Retrospect during the winter of 2009–2010, and produced a catalog. Wiley was included in the Whitney’s Sixties Surreal exhibition in 2025–2026.

Wiley’s artwork is represented at major museums throughout the world, including NY MOMA, SF MOMA, Whitney Art Museum, San Jose Art Museum, LACMA, and many others. A retrospective of Wiley’s career during his years at UC Davis was celebrated in 2022.

A complete biography is posted on his website.