Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of mixed-media works by the artist John Wood. The exhibition will feature Wood’s groundbreaking conceptual and process driven series: Baltimore Steps, 1991-94; Nine imaginary Oil Spills, 1995; Triangle in the Landscape: Eleven Second 90 Degree Turn of a Paper Triangle, 1985; Beach Drawings, c. 1983 and his Gun in Landscape Series c.1967. In addition, the show will include a selection of significant works spanning Wood’s career that emphasize the social and environmental issues that have informed his works since the late 1950s.
Known for his loose and organic working methods, Wood moves freely between media—through drawing, photography, painting, printmaking, and collage, he reorders, extends, and transforms his imagery. Wood has said of his method, “When I’m making a piece and I’m in the process of searching for something I need in my studio—a negative or a particular print or whatever—quite often I come across something else. It’s kind of a continual process that goes on. It can get exasperating if I can’t find what I’m looking for, but I don’t object because a lot of my images grow out of that search.” Wood avoids adhering a narrative to his works, preferring to develop and construct images that are focused on the viewer’s interpretation and the possibility for multiple meanings.
John Wood (1922-2012) was educated at the Institute of Design, Chicago. He taught at Alfred University, New York for 35 years and was an innovator and leader in the field of art education. The artist’s work has been exhibited widely, most recently in a 2009 retrospective at the Grey Art Gallery, and the International Center of Photography and is in the collections of such institutions as the Baltimore Museum of Art; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; Los Angeles County Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.