Della Wells (b.1951, Milwaukee, WI) is a Milwaukee-based, self-taught artist who began making art at age forty-two. As a child, she invented stories and characters based on her mother’s recollections of growing up in North Carolina during the 1920s through the 1940s. Wells used these stories to escape the uncertainties and instabilities of her family life. This inventive practice led to her later narrative style of art making.
While primarily known as a collage artist, Wells also makes drawings and collaborative quilt textiles.
Most of Wells' works are staged in an invented place she calls Mamboland. It is a place where Black women rule, where they hold the strength to counter the forces of oppression and cultural erasure. It is where truths are told and a more hopeful future is shaped.
Wells feels strongly that “being a master of your spiritual self does not come until you understand from where you came from.” She incorporates her own folklore in her work which often also utilizes subtle symbols from the civil rights struggle. Wells works in various media, including collage, painting, and fiber.
Her work has been exhibited in Europe and throughout the United States. Portrait Society Gallery presents her work annually at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City and in 2021 first introduced her work at Untitled (Art Basel) Miami. A play about her life, “Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly,” was written for a performance at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. and it was also presented in Wisconsin. She has illustrated two children’s books.
Recent exhibitions include, "Fabricating Imaginaries: Crafting Art," Rose Museum, MA (2025-2026), "Criss Cross: Fiber Art," Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art (2024), Kentucky Art Center (2024), "Mambo Land" (2014) and "Souls Bloom in This Garden" (2022) Andrew Edlin Gallery, NYC; Cedarburg Museum of Art (2020), Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (2019), "Her Story, My Dreams: The Images of Della Wells,” Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago (2018); "Another Happy Mambo Day: The Invented Worlds of Della Wells,” Wright Museum, Beloit College, (2017). Wells was a the Annette and Dale Schuh Visiting Artist at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (2022).
Wells' work is included in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum, (Milwaukee, WI), The Chazen Museum of Art (Madison, WI), the Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend, WI), Intuit Art Museum (Chicago, IL), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the Bunker Artspace, (Palm Beach, FL), the Lumber Room Collection (Portland, OR), and many private collections.
In 2023, Della Wells was the Annette and Dale Schuh Visiting Artist at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. A play about her life, Don't Tell me I can't Fly, written by Y York, was workshopped at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as part of the 2010 New Voices New Visions Festival. It premiered at the Marcus Center in Milwaukee in 2011.
Well's was the recipient of the City of Milwaukee Artist of the Year Award in 2016. Her work has appeared in the book Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources, by Betty Carol Sellen and Cynthia J. Johnanson; and in Permission to Paint, Please: A 150-year History of African American Artists in Wisconsin by Evelyn Patricia Terry.