BOOK: Jonas Wood-Plants and Animals, David Kordansky Gallery

Known for his colorful and compressed depictions of the people, places, and things that populate his daily life in Los Angeles, Jonas Wood creates works that bear clear traces of his biography in both form and content. The intimate settings invoke the work of forebears such as Henri Matisse and David Hockney, yet his distorted verdant rooms possess an affectless cut-out appearance all his own. “Jonas Wood: Plants and Animals” is a striking new catalogue published on the occasion of the 2022 eponymous exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. With illuminating texts by Wood that incorporate process notes, references, and thoughts about his practice and artmaking in general, this richly illustrated monograph shows how Wood plans and executes his celebrated paintings from his own point of view. The publication features large, full-color plates of the fourteen paintings in the exhibition paired with installation views and dozens of contextualizing images. These include drawings, collages, prints, photographs, previous paintings, research materials, and studio shots; many are never-before-seen selections from Wood’s personal archive.-Dimitris Lempesis