
A private tour of Jonas Wood & Shio Kusaka's studio led by both artists.
Jonas Wood paints landscape and interior scenes, portraits, and still lives that reflect an instantly recognizable vision of the contemporary world, as well as a personal approach to subject matter defined by his affinities and experiences. He probes the boundary between the new and the familiar, integrating emotionally resonant material from everyday life and using painting as a way to freshen his — and the viewer's — perception of it.
Wood will be the subject of a mid-career survey at the Dallas Museum of Art, opening in March 2019. He was recently the subject of a two-person exhibition with Shio Kusaka at Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Netherlands (2017). Other solo exhibitions and projects include Still Life with Two Owls (MOCA), a monumental mural covering the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2016- 2018); Notepads, Holograms and Books (with Ed Ruscha), Gagosian, San Francisco (2017); Shelf Still Life, High Line Billboard, High Line Art, New York (2014); LAXART Billboard and Façade, LAXART, Los Angeles (2014); Clippings, Lever House, New York (2013); and Hammer Projects: Jonas Wood, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010). Recent group exhibitions include One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); The Trick Brain, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon (2017); Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); and Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015). Wood lives and works in Los Angeles.
Shio Kusaka is a Los Angeles-based artist practicing in the ceramic medium. Kusaka grew up attending her grandmother’s tea ceremonies in Japan, in which she learned to observe vessels closely. After receiving her BFA from the University of Washington, Seattle, she moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and focused on clay specifically. Kusaka merges drawing and sculpture, typically moving between abstraction and representation. She has developed a distinct formal language in her use of shape, pattern, color, and glazing techniques that make reference to Yayoi period Japanese pottery, Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt alike. As Roberta Smith stated in the New York Times “If the Minimalist painter Agnes Martin had been a potter, she might have made vessels like these.” From grids, dots, and line patterns to the more playful strawberry, watermelon, and dinosaur vessels, Kusaka always shows her hand in the construction of the works. Kusaka was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Recent museum exhibitions include Shio Kusaka & Jonas Wood, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands (2017); Recent Acquisitions in Asian Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (2017); Going Public: The Napoleone Collection – International Art Collectors in Sheffield, Graves Gallery, Sheffield, UK (2016), traveled to Touchstones Rochdale Museum, Rochdale, UK; among others.
Limited street parking available.
As this event has limited capacity, RSVPs will be confirmed via email should they be successful and are not guaranteed.