Wharton's first solo exhibition took place at the
Phyllis Kind Gallery in Chicago in 1976. She had eleven more solo shows at the Kind Galleries in Chicago and New York City between 1977 and 1991. In 1981-82 another solo exhibition by Wharton, sponsored by the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, traveled to Texas, Florida, and South Carolina. This exhibition was reviewed in
Artforum in January 1982. Her work has been invited to many group exhibitions in the United States and the United Kingdom. Wharton won the Anna Louise Raymond award in the "Fellowship Show" at the
Art Institute of Chicago (1975), and the Logan Prize (1974) in the "Chicago and Vicinity Show" at the same institution. She completed commissions for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (1985), and the
Chicago Public Library, West Lawn Branch (1986). Wharton also has been awarded grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts (1980, 1988). Her work is in major private and permanent collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Chicago; the
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the
Dallas Museum, Texas; the
Madison Art Center, Wisconsin;
Seattle Art Museum, Washington; and the
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. == Honors, grants, and awards ==