What Does Issy Wood Eat In a Day?

A visit to TANK Shanghai is an unusual architectural encounter. Formerly one of China’s first airports, the site comprises five industrial tanks—over 15 metres high—that form a dramatic backdrop for art.

It is in this setting that Issy Wood presents What I Eat In A Day (6 November 2024–19 January 2025), the U.S.-born British painter’s first significant display of small-scale works that capture routine activities from baking and eating to braiding hair and playing with a pet rat.

Wood delights in making the plain peculiar through extreme close-ups, a hallmark of her compositions that create an uncomfortable proximity. The grainy effect of her paint application further heightens this effect.

Supplements and vitamins are the focal point in Study for deficiency (2023), while Untitled (Sandwich) (2023) zooms in on a pair of hands preparing lunch. Whole 30 relapse (2023) shows milk pouring into a person’s cereal-filled mouth; they indulge in this private moment with their eyes closed. Wood presents these ordinary, private acts through an explicit and unfiltered lens, offering a glimpse into her everyday rituals in the form of a visual diary.

Wood is represented by Michael Werner Gallery and Carlos/Ishikawa, whose founder, Vanessa Carlos, discovered the artist during her studies in 2017 and soon began exhibiting her work.

Next year, Wood will present a solo show at Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin and participate in a group show at The Perimeter in London.