Jonas Wood

Jonas Wood 1977 Boston - lives and works in Los Angeles Jonas Wood, one of the shooting stars of the art market, who is still considered a newcomer at a Sotheby's auction in 2015 and has already broken the million mark several times with his works to date, was born in Boston in 1977. He grew up in a home with an affinity for art. His father is an architect. His grandfather is an amateur painter and collects art, owning works by Alexander Calder, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol and others. With the sale of the work "Portrait of George Dyer Talking" (1966) by Francis Bacon, which the grandfather bought in the year of its creation and sold in 1980, he finances the education of his grandson. Jonas Wood studied psychology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, and then enrolled at the University of Washington to study art. He then worked for several years as an assistant to the artist Laura Owens in Los Angeles, which Jonas Wood describes as a great stroke of luck and instructive for his own artistic work. In 2002 Jonas Wood married the ceramicist Shio Kusaka, with whom he shares a studio. There is a lively exchange between his painterly work and her craft work; ceramics, Greco-ancient vases and vessels frequently appear in Jonas Wood's paintings. Modern update of traditional genres of painting Jonas Wood combines in his landscapes and interiors the ornamental beauty à la Henri Matisse with modern content that appeals to today's viewers. Jonas Wood's paintings appear two-dimensional and strangely empty, oscillating in expression and formal language between Edward Hopper and Stuart Davis. In 2010, the first solo exhibition of Jonas Wood's work was held at the UCLA-Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. In 2019, the Dallas Museum of Art presents him as one of the most influential and exciting artists of his time with a survey show of the first thirteen years of his fledgling artistic career. Paintings as a Visual Diary When asked about the content of his paintings, Jonas Wood replies that he doesn't paint anything that doesn't relate to him in some way. His art is his "visual diary". The subjectively held views and vistas, landscapes and interiors, sports fields, portraits of family members as well as room still lifes in bright colors and of clear, graphically held form language capture the represented on the surface of the canvas. And again and again the ceramic vessels of his wife Shio, a likewise renowned ceramic artist with whom Jonas Wood has also been able to present himself in several double exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide, appear. Enormous success with audiences worldwide With his art career as fast-paced as it is successful, Jonas Wood is considered a phenomenon in the international art market. In 2015, Jonas Wood's painting "Studio Hallway" (2010) is auctioned at Sotheby's in London for an already impressive 364,000 British pounds - a record that is almost doubled just a few months later at Christie's for another painting by Jonas Wood. In May 2021, the large-format still life "Two Tables with Floral Pattern" already fetches $6.5 million at Christie's. Collectors in America, Europe, and Asia are lusting after Jonas Wood's works, fueled by interest from major museums worldwide. However, the major museum shows for Jonas Wood have yet to take place, and audiences around the world are eagerly awaiting them. Jonas Wood lives and works in Los Angeles.