Hobart and William Smith Colleges

3 November 2015 Wood 99 Exhibit Opens in London

Following his exhibit at the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles and the Gagosian Gallery in Hong Kong this winter, Los Angeles-based artist Jonas Wood 99 premiered a new series of paintings at Gagosian Gallery in London, his first exhibition there.

In its press release about the solo show, Gagosian compares Woods ongoing investigation of his intimate environment to the work of Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and David Hockney, noting other influences from Chinese and Japanese still-life scenes, ancient pottery and the textiles of Josef Frank.

Sampling subjects from his own photographs, he reiterates them through an intensive process of drawing, the press release continues. Filling the compressed spaces of his paintings with figures, plants, and household objects, Wood reimagines the world as a variegated collage of overlapping patterns, flatly rendered. Painted outlines of pots and vases often based on the work of his wife Shio Kusaka and fueled by their shared interest in the history of ceramics contain landscape and interior imagery, while verdant interiors possess an affectless cut-out appearance.

The exhibit, which opened Oct. 13, will run through Dec. 19.

In 2013, the Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago showcased an exhibit of Woods work. A review of the exhibit called Woods paintings, intimate, exquisite and 100% covetable. In 2014, Wood brought his art to a billboard installation in New York City as part of the New York High Line, a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets of Manhattans West Side.

Wood graduated from Hobart with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in studio art, having participated in the abroad program in Bath, England. He earned a M.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of Washington. His work has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at Patrick De Brock Gallery, Knokke, Belgium; La Montagne Gallery, Boston; Hammer Projects, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MinMin Gallery, Tokyo; Anton Kern Gallery, N.Y.; and Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles.

Wood, who was interviewed earlier this year in ARTnews and Hyperallergic, was recently profiled in an article on the art blog The Ex Expat, reprinted below.

The Ex Expat

The Nostalgia of the Re-imagined

Henry Bateman October 15, 2015

People think painting is about an image that can be repeated and sold,

as opposed to a long-term practice.

You need a lot of tools and ideas to draw from,

when you end up in a studio alone.

Jonas Wood

Jonas Woods grandfather was an early and important influence for the California based painter.

As he told ArtNews Bill Powers My grandfather built this crazy house in 1955 in upstate New York and filled it with his art collection. He was an interesting guy: a self-made man, a doctor. He taught himself how to paint at age 60. When I was younger, I thought maybe Id follow in his footsteps.

Its a subject Wood elaborated upon with Hyperallergics Jennifer Sametsaying The painting I remember especially is Francis Bacons George Dyer Talking (1966). When I think about it, I remember exactly where it was hanging in his house. In graduate school, which is where I really began studying art, I realized how amazing it was that I grew up with a seminal piece by one of the most important figurative painters. My grandfather bought it the year it was made. He sold it in 1980, and basically gave the money to his grandchildren, encouraging us to get as much education as we wanted, which obviously was a huge blessing.

And to a certain extent Wood did follow in the older mans footsteps studying psychology at Bostons [sic] Hobart and William Smith Collegesprior to learning how to paint.

I finished my psychology requirements by junior year, and spent the first semester of my senior year abroad for a research program. I decided that when I returned, I wanted to spend the rest of my time just learning how to paint, he has explained.

Wood obtained his Masters of Fine Artsfromthe University of Washingtonin 2002 and the following year with his wife, the potter Shio Kusaka, Wood moved to Los Angeles. A solo exhibition featuring portraits of his grandfather and the Boston Celtics basketball star Robert Parish saw his career take off.

The inclusion of still lifes based on his wifes pottery and reimagined interior scenes from his childhood have expanded his oeuvre and seen him become a member of the stable of the world wide contemporary art gallerychain owned and directed byLarry Gagosian.

About his interior scenes Wood has said I have had a deep emotional connection to most of the places I select to paint. That is going to come across. There is a personal nostalgia I can feed off. Everyone wants to go back to his or her youth in some way, be nave, and be a kid again. I know there are powerful emotions, and I use that as fuel.

The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith said of Woods 2011 exhibition at the Anton Kerr Gallery Each painting here presents a highly personal but impersonally observed reality that has been astutely cobbled together but is almost too much to take in. It is presented whole, but with all the seams showing for easy disassembly. Thats enough to make one of paintings most frequent subjects the artists life seem new again.

Woods inaugural London exhibition is currently on show at Mayfairs Gagosian Gallery until the 19^th of December.