“Jonas Wood: Plants and Animals” at David Kordansky Gallery

A dog named Robot, Wood’s scrappy-looking terrier mix featured often in past works, died last year and is not among the canines seen here. Instead, most were found on Instagram. A trio accompanies his wife, artist Shio Kusaka, in Shio with Three Dogs, a composition dominated by a large mastiff with a shaggy mane. Nearby, hang three gouache, pencil, and ink studies.

Painted from a photo taken forty years ago by the artist’s father, C.M.Z. House on M.V. with Ptolemy features a 1970s style beach house atop a weed-covered dune in Martha’s Vineyard. In the foreground, the family cat Ptolemy sits in the pathway. 

Ravello, Italy was sourced from a photo sent to Wood ten years ago by his cousin who requested a watercolor reproduction to use for his wedding invitation. Patterned Interior with Mar Vista View, a view of Wood’s old house, includes nothing taken from real life except the potted plant in the foreground. The riotous colors of the curtain, its pine needle motif meticulously laid out in singular brushstrokes, complement the chaotic pattern on the sofa, each painstakingly applied with a thousand little lines.

In other works a veneer of spots, wood grains, and finishes are similarly employed, making these large-scale still lifes a study in pattern making. Wood’s process suggests patience and a dedication to craft, much like the drawings of Vincent Van Gogh in their regard for mark-making or, more recently, Ed Moses, whose graphite works from the 1960s and ‘70s are composed of an endless series of lines. 

Raised in Boston, Wood found inspiration early in his grandfather’s art collection, featuring works by modern masters like Jim Dine, Francis Bacon, Robert Motherwell, Larry Rivers, Alexander Calder, and Andy Warhol. After receiving his MFA from the University of Washington, he moved to Los Angeles in 2002. There, he received real-world training while working for two years as assistant to painter Laura Owens and another two for sculptor Matt Johnson.

His first solo exhibition was in 2006 at an LA gallery called Black Dragon Society. A year later, New York’s Anton Kern Gallery mounted a solo show of his works based on a tip from artist Mark Grotjahn. Wood’s public commissions include murals for New York’s High Line and for the façades of LAXART and MOCA. His use of flat bright colors has many critics placing him with one foot in the Pop Art tradition and the other foot, based on his subject matter, in the realm of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. 

“Using local color is just a tool, like perspective,” Wood said in a 2010 interview with LA's Hammer Museum, promoting his first solo museum show. “When color challenges you, and tells you a plant is blue not green, then maybe color can ask you new questions about what you are seeing.”