William T. Wiley, âFunk Artistâ Who Spurned Convention, Dies at 83 Rooted in the Bay Area, he disdained commerce (and the New York scene, mostly), produced an eclectic kind of figurative art and imparted his âWiz-dumbâ to disciples. William T. Wiley loaded up his art as if it were his scrapbook, depicting figures, landscapes, perhaps images of nuclear reactors and the despoliation of the natural environment.Credit...William T. Wiley/Hosfelt Gallery By Deborah Solomon Published May 5, 2021Updated May 18, 2021 William T. Wiley, the influential artist and educator who helped found the funk art movement and establish the San Francisco Bay Area art scene as an unfiltered alternative to what he saw as the flagrant commercialism of New York, died on April 25 in a hospital in Greenbrae, Calif. He was 83.