Roland Wise was a painter born in San Francisco, California in 1923. He studied at the Art Students League in New York before receiving his bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1955 and his master’s degree from New York University in 1958. Wise taught at the University of Manitoba from 1951-1955 before moving to the State University College at Buffalo (now SUNY Buffalo State) where he taught from 1955 until his retirement in 1992.

Wise is perhaps most well known for his abstracted interiors and still lives. His massive painting Swiss Chard and Lettuce (1969) was one of the first works purchased by the Burchfield Center (now Burchfield Penney Art Center) with a grant to support the acquisition of contemporary art in 1974. His work is also in the collection of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute in Utica, New York, and in various corporate and college collections in the United States and Canada.

Wise’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the More Rubin Gallery and the James Goodman Gallery in Buffalo, and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center. His work was also included in exhibitions at the Ruth White Gallery in New York, the Vanguard Gallery in New London, Connecticut, and at Canadian art museums in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, St. Catherines, and Vancouver.