Jonas Wood 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.
Recent solo exhibitions include Gagosian, London (2024); Karma, Los Angeles (2023); Karma, New York (2023); Gagosian, New York (2023); David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); Gagosian, Hong Kong (2021); Dallas Museum of Art (2019); and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010). His work is in the permanent collections of the Broad, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.
In 2017, Jonas Wood was the TWO TWO for AIDS and Art Honoree Artist.
[excerpted from David Kordansky Gallery website: www.davidkordanskygallery.com]