Jonas Wood - Kiki and Leopard

Jonas Wood’s Kiki and Leopard (State II) (2020) is an intimate etching and drypoint that captures a quiet domestic scene featuring Jonas Wood's and Shio Kusaka's son Kiki seated beside a lounging leopard on a patterned couch. Executed with fine linear detail and chine-collé, the work blends everyday familiarity with subtle surrealism. Produced in a rare edition of just 12 plus 4 artist’s proofs, the piece exemplifies Wood’s sensitivity to personal space, memory, and portraiture.

You could call [my work] a visual diary or even a personal history. I’m not going to paint something that doesn’t have anything to do with me. Of all of the possible things I could paint, the thing that interests me is something that I can get close enough to in order to paint it honestly. – Jonas Wood

Jonas Wood, an American figurative painter born in 1977 in Boston and currently residing in Los Angeles, is celebrated for his distinctively bold, graphic artworks that radiate with vibrant color and simplified forms. Known for his stylized approach to painting, drawing, and printmaking, Wood intricately weaves personal experiences with a rich tapestry of art historical influences. His artwork, marked by a deliberate translation of three-dimensional scenes into flattened, colorful compositions, spans a diverse array of subjects including plants, portraits, interiors, and sports imagery, all unified by his unique visual language. Jonas Wood’s art is characterized by a playful interplay of bright palettes and geometric abstraction, drawing inspiration from luminaries such as David Hockney, Henri Matisse and Alex Katz. This inspiration manifests in his celebrated still lifes and densely patterned depictions of commonplace settings, transforming domestic interiors and landscapes into captivating scenes brimming with life and complexity. His methodical process, which encompasses painting, drawing, print, and collage, involves deconstructing and reassembling photographic imagery, allowing him to explore and dissect visual space with remarkable precision. Throughout his career, Jonas Wood has adeptly balanced working across various scales, maintaining an active engagement with drawing and creating limited edition prints alongside his larger canvases. This multifaceted approach has facilitated a dynamic exploration of form and narrative, positioning him as a significant contemporary voice in American contemporary art. Jonas Wood’s artworks have been showcased in solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Dallas Museum of Art, Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, the Netherlands; and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, underscoring his impact and the widespread appeal of his artwork.