Issy Wood’s Textured Paintings Evoke Uncanny Aesthetics at Michael Werner

Issy Wood b. 1993, United States Follow +

Issy Wood‘s paintings are both seductive and unsettling. A self-described ‘medieval millennial’, Wood renders contemporary subjects and concerns in a distinctly uncanny, hyperreal style.

Open now at New York‘s Michael Werner is Time Sensitive (9 September–12 November 2022), a solo exhibition of new paintings by the American-born, London-based artist.

Wood depicts everyday objects, honing in on evocative textures and surfaces. Polished kitchenware, glossy leather, and gleaming sets of teeth reveal a realm of deeply intimate moments.

Cropped snapshots, such as that of a leather seat in Neapolitan (How you really feel) (2021), and lace lingerie in Untitled (Me time) (2022), suggest a reflection on the artist’s experience of contemporary life. Often taking the form of extreme close-ups, Wood’s compositions might be considered fetishistic—or, as Barry Schwabsky described in Artforum, ‘perverted realism’.

By using oils on unconventional substrates such as velvet and leather, Wood tempts viewers to experience her paintings as tactile, sensory objects with depth, subverting a two-dimensional reading.

Wood is a graduate of Goldsmiths (2015) and the Royal Academy Schools, London (2018). She is also an electronic-pop musician, with her latest album, My Body Your Choice (2022), featuring her own paintings on the cover art.

In 2022, Wood featured in the group exhibition Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2023, she will exhibit in the group show Brave New World: 20 Painters for the 21st Century at the Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle, Netherlands.

Main image: Exhibition view: Issy Wood, Time Sensitive, Michael Werner, New York (6 September–12 November 2022). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Annabel Downes, Ocula Advisory.