Jonas Wood (b. 1977, Boston) makes paintings that can be classified as a variety of different genres, including portraits, still lifes, landscapes and interior scenes. In each of these, however, his work reflects an instantly recognizable vision of the contemporary world, as well as a personal approach to subject matter defined by his affinities and experiences. Its warmth is matched by a quasi-abstract logic that breaks pictures down into layered compositions of geometry, pattern, and color. Wood works at every scale, and maintains active drawing and printmaking practices, each of which helps him generate techniques that he eventually uses in paintings. Conjuring depth using flat forms––his process involves collage-based studies in which he works with photographs, breaking images apart and reassembling them––Wood probes the boundary between the new and the familiar, integrating emotionally resonant material from everyday life. Painting becomes a way to freshen the artist’s––and the viewer’s––perception of the world.
Jonas Wood has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art (2019); Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Netherlands (with Shio Kusaka, 2017); Lever House, New York (2014); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010). Other solo projects include Still Life with Two Owls (MOCA), a monumental picture covering the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2016- 2018); Shelf Still Life, High Line Billboard, High Line Art, New York (2014); and LAXART Billboard and Façade, LAXART, Los Angeles (2014). His work is included in the permanent collections of many institutions, among them the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Fundación Jumex, Mexico City; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Broad Foundation, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 2019, Phaidon published the first monograph dedicated to Wood’s most significant paintings and drawings. Wood lives and works in Los Angeles.
Jonas Wood
Japanese Garden, 2017
oil and acrylic on canvas
93 x 93 inches
(236.2 x 236.2 cm)
Jonas Wood
Landscape Pot with Bromeliad, 2016
gouache, colored pencil and collaged paper on paper
33 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches
(84.5 x 51.4 cm)
framed:
38 1/2 x 25 3/4 x 2 inches
(97.8 x 65.4 x 5.1 cm)
Jonas Wood
Rosy In My Room With His Cat, 2016
oil and acrylic on canvas
68 x 68 inches
(172.7 x 172.7 cm)
Jonas Wood
Red Interior Pot, 2015
oil and acrylic on canvas
76 x 74 inches
(193 x 188 cm)
Jonas Wood
Blue Rug Still Life, 2014
oil and acrylic on canvas
105 x 103 inches
(266.7 x 261.6 cm)
Jonas Wood
Clipping A3, 2013
oil and acrylic on canvas
118 x 93 inches
(299.7 x 236.2 cm)
Jonas Wood
French Open Four, 2012
oil and acrylic on linen
62 x 50 inches
(157.5 x 127 cm)
Jonas Wood
Green Room Study, 2012
gouache and colored pencil on paper
34 1/2 x 31 inches
(87.6 x 78.7 cm)
framed:
40 x 36 1/2 x 1 7/8 inches
(101.6 x 92.7 x 4.8 cm)
Jonas Wood
Momo with Stuffed Animals, 2011
oil and acrylic on canvas
72 1/4 x 72 inches
(183.5 x 182.9 cm)
Jonas Wood
AC5, 2009
color pencil and acrylic on paper
60 x 41 inches
(152.4 x 104.1 cm)
framed:
65 1/2 x 46 1/2 x 1 7/8 inches
(166.4 x 118.1 x 4.8 cm)
Jonas Wood
Black Snake, 2008
charcoal on paper
44 x 30 inches
(111.8 x 76.2 cm)
framed:
49 1/2 x 38 1/2 x 1 7/8 inches
(125.7 x 97.8 x 4.8 cm)
Jonas Wood
Bullets, 2007
oil on linen
72 x 52 inches
(182.9 x 132.1 cm)