Issy Wood

Issy Wood is an American painter, writer and musician whose combines traditional painting style with pop culture references. Born in 1993 in the United States, now living and working in London, Wood has quickly emerged as one of the most exciting contemporary artists.

Wood studied at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 and the Royal Academy Schools in 2018. Wood often turns to the luxurious richness of velvet as the ‘canvas’ for her paintings, transforming everyday objects — dental braces, jewellery, tableware, car interiors and jackets — into provocative and enticing queries of materiality.

The artist’s muted colour palettes and meticulous brushwork create a haunting atmosphere that draws viewers into her contemplative world. As a painter, Issy Wood often explores themes of consumerism, identity and the passage of time, using her art to probe the deeper meanings behind the familiar and the overlooked.

During her studies at the Royal Academy, Wood became entranced by the glossy pages of old auction catalogues, perusing them often, fascinated by the sheer volume of property that is brought in and out of the public’s attention. She, too, noticed the overwhelmingly fleeting nature of content in today’s social media; the influx of images that dance on and off of the screen is the product of mass consumerism and the demand for the oversaturation of content. This enigma of the contemporary age is at the foundation of Wood’s diverse and strangely familiar universe of images.

Catapulted into popularity amongst art collectors, dealers and enthusiasts alike, Wood has also built a name for herself in the music industry. On the relationship between her music and art, Wood reflects on the automatism of her artistry. Both, she says, come to her with an immediacy and urgency to be created, each song and canvas acting as a meditation on her stream of consciousness. Wood paints and produces prolifically, her work consistently eccentric and consciously contemporary.