Brian Wood (artist)

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Brian Wood (Born Canada, 1948), is a visual artist working with multiple media in photography, painting, drawing and printmaking in New York City.

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[edit] Biography

Brian Wood was born in Saskatoon in central Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up on a family farm in northern Saskatchewan (Brancepeth). He received a B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1969, in math, physics and literature. Shortly after receiving this degree he moved to New York City and made paintings.

During the next few years, he traveled and worked in Europe, spending much of his time in Greece. Wood made his first painting commission for Lord Byron's Chambers in The Albany in London in 1972 and exhibited his first prints at Redfern Gallery, London. Returning to New York, Wood began attending graduate school at Hunter College, where he studied painting from 1972 to 1975. While studying, he worked as a studio assistant to the painters Adolph Gottlieb and Ralph Humphrey, and received an M.A. in Studio Art from Hunter College. At Hunter, he met Hollis Frampton and became interested in film. He also met Michael Snow and crewed on Snow's film Rameau's Nephew (based on Denis Diderot's 1762 text Le Neveu de Rameau]. Wood made his first films Clearview and Fixt in 1974-1975, working closely with Hollis Frampton, and Clearview was first screened at Film Forum in New York in 1975.

Wood's early work was influenced by Hollis Frampton and Michael Snow, and like them, he continued his explorations in multiple media. In 1976 Wood developed his ideas in works constructed of multiple photographs. His very early photographic pieces, "Facing", 1976 (Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC) and "Array", 1977 (Collection: Museum of Modern Art, NYC) were first exhibited in 1978 at the Whitney Museum (Downtown), New York. Galerie Marielle Mailhot, Montreal, gave Wood his first solo show of photographs in 1979, soon followed by several solo museum exhibitions in Canada, and Ydessa Hendeles did a solo Wood exhibition in Toronto in 1980. The Canada Council first awarded Arts Grants to Brian Wood in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1982.

John Szarkowski, Chief Curator of Photography, began collecting Wood's work for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1979, installing his photo-construction "Array", 1977 in the permanent galleries where it remained on permanent exhibition until into the 90's. "Array" and other works remain in the permanent collection. MoMA exhibited Wood's work in their 1982 traveling exhibition (and book) "Twentieth Century Photographs from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art", "Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers" in 1983 and "Color Photographs: Recent Acquisitions" in 1984. MoMA included Wood's work in the book "The Museum of Modern Art: The History and the Collection", introduction by Sam Hunter, Abrams, 1984. "Multiple Images:Photographs since 1965 from the Collection" included Wood in 1993 and his work appears in MoMA's 2002 book "Walker Evans & Company" by curator Peter Galassi.

During the 1980s Wood exhibited paintings, drawings and photographs in many gallery and museum exhibitions in the United States and internationally. In 1984 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. The Brooklyn Museum showed wood in "Color in the Summer" and work entered their collection as his work also entered other museum collections such as the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery of Hamilton, and many others.

Brian Wood was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1999 in two categories, photography and graphics, recognizing his work in print-making as well as photography.[1]

[edit] Work

James Casebere writes[2]

“ Wood's works are biological, anatomical, spiritual and erotic. ... All this work seems to result from a deep internal investigation of the brain via the trauma of the body. And this mind body unity at the core of Wood's work reveals a cataclysmic trauma of spiritual proportions. ”

Wood's works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art,[3] Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and New York Public Library, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Davis Museum, Wellesley; the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of Modern Art, Prague; the National Gallery of Canada,[4] Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography,[4][5] and Artbank, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario; the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan;[6] the Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia;[4][7] and the Concordia Art Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Guggenheim Fellows: W.
  2. ^ Casebere, James (Spring 2006), “Artists on Artists: James Casebere on Brian Wood”, BOMB Magazine 95: 8 .
  3. ^ Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers, April 13-June 28, 1983. Interview with Wood and two other exhibited photographers (Nancy Hellebrand and William Wegman), MOMA sound recording 98.10.
  4. ^ a b c Robertson, Lisa (2001), Brian Wood: Cribbed, ABC Art Books Canada, ISBN 1895497477 . Catalog of exhibit of photography from the collections of the NGC, CMCP, and Kamloops gallery. Also described at Kamloops 2001 exhibits web page.
  5. ^ Hanna, Martha (1995), Brian Wood: Related Differences. Catalog of exhibit at Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, ISBN 978-0888845719 .
  6. ^ Poser, Stephen (1979), Brian Wood: Photographic Works (exhibition catalogue, 1979, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1979-1980 circulating exhibition, Canada), Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corp .
  7. ^ Kamloops Art Gallery: 2002. "The works of three internationally-known Canadian-born artists make up this exceptional photographic exhibit from the Kamloops Art Gallery’s permanent collection ... Brian Wood’s Rolling Out is a series of sharp, detailed, black and white prints using a circular motif that echoes and responds to Lawrence’s underwater photography in the main gallery."

[edit] Additional sources

  • Lehman, Henry. The Montreal Star, Canada, 3/15/79
  • Viau, Rene. Le Devoir, Montreal, Canada, 3/17/79
  • Nixon, Virginia. La Presse, Montreal, Canada, 3/79

[edit] External links