This is the exhibition David Hockney came to visit the very day before I was scheduled to go.
Jonas Wood at David Kordansky Gallery. A must see in Los Angeles, through December 16, 2017.
Jonas Wood, Eames House Interior, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
It is fresh and inspired, much like David Hockney’s own work to which Jonas Wood’s self-assured brushstrokes pay a vibrant homage.
Both artists seem to share a similar vision of life, where colors sing and textural patterns resonate quietly, albeit confidently.
Jonas Wood, Detail from Romancing the Stone, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Jonas Wood, Detail from Romancing the Stone, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Yet in Jonas Wood’s paintings perhaps the time immemorial rhythmic quality of aboriginal motifs is more apparent.
Jonas Wood, Detail from Austrian Golf Course, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
I find his palette is also tighter than Hockney’s: many of Jonas Wood’s landscapes play tone on tone, never straying far from keys of earthy brown or forest green.
Jonas Wood, Detail from Austrian Golf Course, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Even white on white manages to be colorful!
Jonas Wood, Snowscape with Barn, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Jonas Wood, detail from Snowscape with Barn, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
He builds space with patterns which add vibrancy and energy, without necessarily resorting to vivid contrasts expediently.
Jonas Wood, Vegas, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Case in point: how can Jonas Wood make Las Vegas so recognizable and yet so devoid of the contrasts we readily associate with Vegas?
Jonas Wood, Detail from Vegas, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Jonas Wood, Detail from Vegas, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
His paintings transported me into a universe flooded with light, much like the vivid quality of an illuminated stage as the theater lights go dark – except Jonas Wood uses the white walls of the gallery space as contrasting medium.
Jonas Wood, Jungle Kitchen, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Like David Hockney, Jonas Wood works from photographic collages. His paintings present multiple perspectives (more on the subject, here), carefully highlighting a multitude of angles and details worthy of appreciation, if not attention.
Joining the fight against what Hockney termed “cyclopic perspective”, Jonas Wood delivers an ambitious way of seeing.
Jonas Wood, Exterior with Hanging Plants, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Each painting takes you on a generous visual journey where you can just let your eyes butterfly from one pinpointed detail to the next. Marvel at a surprising touch of royal blue on vegetation and embrace an acute sense of color as cues to keep looking and wondering.
Jonas Wood, Exterior with Hanging Plants, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
In Exterior with Hanging Plants (2017), sharp long shadows project on a terra cotta brick floor and delineate a pyramidal arrangement of potted plants.
Jonas Wood, Exterior with Hanging Plants, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
A true virtuoso when it comes to depicting leaves of all shape or form, Jonas Wood delivers a patchwork of almost child-like dot and line patterns up close; but take a step or two and everything resolves in the lushest of foliage.
Jonas Wood, Exterior with Hanging Plants, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
The pared-down green outlines he painted on surrounding white panels are the only fragments required for our imagination to complete the hanging vegetation covering window panes basked in sunlight. Such an economy of line letting light radiate effortlessly!
Jonas Wood, Japanese Garden, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
In Japanese Garden (2017), I thought of Seurat, Pointillism quickly followed by Divisionism, and how Jonas Wood’s light may be inspired and nonetheless his very own.
Seurat was interested in dissecting color into small juxtaposed dots which our eyes see as optically mixed with the effect of distance. A softly diffused light effect permeates most of Seurat’s works as a result (explore this here).
Jonas Wood, detail from Japanese Garden, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
For Jonas Wood, it’s more about medical contrasts and the flood lights of an operating theater. His works grant our hyper-sensitized vision a vividness that’s nonetheless never harsh. Equipped with a microscope function, our eyes isolate threads, cells, textures and structures but the choice to see all this is still ours.
Jonas Wood, detail from Eames House Interior, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
Jonas Wood, detail from Eames House Interior, 2017, David Kordansky Gallery
His work is a canvas for how we want to see the world we live in. Savor its infinite details using the sharp focus of your eyes or take a step back…
Jonas Wood, Landscapes and Interiors, is at David Kordansky Gallery until December 16, 2017.
© 2017 Ingrid Westlake
All pictures by Ingrid Westlake, unless otherwise stated.
Ingrid dear How can you manage to go visit so many shows ? Do you live in LA or here in Dan Diego ? I guess here because I have seen your morning images while jugging .. but it could be you are visiting us too :)) Bravo to you no matter where you live and thanks so very much for sharing !! Love Becky
Becky Guttin Artist 619 997 9595 beckyguttin.com
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I live in SD but I go to LA often for work. I pack a lot in my days, standing still maybe I will learn when I am dead 😂 I am so glad to spread the love and it makes my day when I receive comments such as yours, dear Becky! Thank you 🙏🏼
Thanks my dear ! It makes my day when you share what you see, and the way you share it, it’s just amazing ! Merci beaucoup ! et Bises 🙂
🙏🏼 Thank you!
J’adore!
Me too!! I want one of his works 😍😍😍
Hanging Plants and Japonese Garden are lovely canvas…I understand why you want one if his works! In your whishes list?
Love his style which looks like when a child can see plants, trees flowers and world. Romancing the Stone is almost a jigsaw puzzle.Thank you for moving and sharing all you discover in the Gallery.I could see paintings staying in my armchair!
Definitely on my wish list but probably beyond my budget. They’re still really nice to look at, at least 😉
Jonas Wood’s work transmit serenity, calm. Small touches very colorful and posed very appropriately illuminate his paintings.
The zooms that you propose us are excellent and we note that the work of the detail is important and makes the realization superb.
” le tracé des feuilles” would be almost childish !! but we are not mistaken! they are beautiful representations.
today you expand our knowledge in a different universe and yet this universe is close to Seurat or Hockney !
C’est là, toute la subtilité de ces artistes ….
Thank you, Marie-Annick. Yes, Jonas Wood is really amazing both from close up or at a distance. It’s been a big “coup de coeur” as it speaks to my “universe” very much so. So glad I get to make everybody discover new artists. Loving doing it!
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