Jonas Wood - Drawings 2003-2023 - Karma Los Angeles
Jonas Wood - Drawings 2003-2023
Karma Los Angeles
November 10, 2023 – January 6, 2024
Review by Timothy LeBlanc
To call the works in the new Jonas Wood's show at Karma Los Angeles drawings, is at best a misnomer. The works are made of acrylic, gouache, ink, colored pencil, crayon, pen, and even some collage. There are one hundred works presented ranging from 2" x 3" miniatures to large scale 41" x 60" all of which deserve some time.
Instillation view.
Photo by Timothy LeBlanc
Jonas Wood, W 20, 2008
Photo by Karma
Of course, some deserve more time than others, just like Woods put more time into creating some than others. His time does not always correlate with where the viewers time should be directed though. This is true of all art but in this show where there is such a varying degree of "finish" it is valuable to remind ourselves of this.
It is amazing just how interesting it is to look at the most simple works in the entire show, eight individual portraits of basketballs. They come about halfway through the show though are from early, 2008, in its scope. They are stylistically loose with the both the gouache and ink being semi-transparent with their floating nature they almost go so far as to evoke a Koons' Equilibrium Tank.
Other works show even clearer references to other artists like Wood's good friend Mark Grotjahn, Alexander Calder, and most successfully his wife Shio Kusaka. For one who is able to spot the pots that Kusaka makes they will start to see them everywhere in the show. Some of the most successful works in the show like Still Life with Fruit and Cats, 2020 (Shown above) are full her work. The graphic quality of her line making through the clay forms lends itself perfectly to the line making style of Wood's, creating a perfect marriage of form and subject on the paper. As one of the best artists working in clay today it makes perfect sense for Wood's to lean in to celebrate her work as well.
Jonas Wood, Still Life with Fruit and Cats, 2020
Photo by Timothy LeBlanc
Not every work is in reference to others, often instead he digs into his own practice to reexamine works that he has done in the past. the clearest example of this for those that are familiar with Wood's work is, Four Majors 7 (Australian Open 17, French Open 8, Wimbledon #15, US Open 17), 2018, 2016, 2016, 2018. (shown at start of article) These massive works, each 60' x 41', are a subject that Wood's has examine many times. There is even another set of works in the show, Mini Four Majors 3 which sees the same subject rendered, well mini. They are not just big but demonstrate that Wood's is able to return over and over to a subject and yet they all seem so interesting.
Jonas Wood, McHale Pot, 2008
Photo by Timothy LeBlanc
This whole show demonstrates this greatly. Subjects and style of line making interweave themselves throughout the years. Sports, friends, family, influences, plants, and Shio all come up many times over the twenty-year span shown. Often this would be an insult, levied to say in artist has gotten stale as they settled into their mature subject, but one can see in these drawings that Wood's has been able to continually develop while staying true to his style, his interests, and his loves.
Jonas Wood Drawings 2003-2023 is on view at Karma Los Angeles from November 10th, 2023 to January 6th, 2024. It is highly recommend that anyone interested in the artist, or great work being done by contemporary masters, make their way there.