[ B I O G R A P H Y ]

John Wood has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 20 years, but his connection to Utah and Salt Lake City go back to his youth. After graduating from Highland High School, John attended Weber State University and earned his BFA in Painting from the University of Utah. He went on to graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he received his MFA in Painting. He then taught art for several years as the head of the Art and Fine Arts Departments at Judge Memorial High School, and he worked with younger students on mural projects in several Salt Lake Elementary and Middle Schools.

John has been associated with Phillips Gallery for more than 40 years, first exhibiting in group shows at the gallery in 1975, He was also included in exhibits at their previous additional locations, Pierpont Gallery, and Dooley Gallery in Park City. His work is also included in the Salt Lake County Art Collection and was recently purchased and added to the Utah State Fine Art Collection.

Outside of Utah, John has upcoming artist residencies in Sorèze, Southern France and at LUCID Foundation near Point Reyes, California. He has been an artist resident at the Jentel Foundation near Sheridan, Wyoming, at the Oakopolis Creativity Center in Oakland, California, and at the Morris Graves Foundation in Northern California, which culminated in a solo exhibit at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka, California. One of his large works is on display at City Hall in Emeryville, California, as part of the city’s permanent art collection. And even farther afield, he was invited to exhibit at the American Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia through the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies Program.

In addition to Phillips Gallery, his work is shown regularly at ArtHaus Gallery and Consulting in San Francisco and Palm Springs, California, Desta Gallery in Mill Valley, California, and Space Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

“Perhaps the most striking aspect of his work is the command of a palette that passes from sensuous delight to crescendos of almost violent impact without losing the essential idea in each.” George Dibble, Salt Lake Tribune

[ S T A T E M E N T ]

There have been so many moments in the past few years that could easily have led to despair, but those places of darkness have very often led to the beautiful or even the sublime. I respond to all of it as honestly and directly as I can through my art. When I work to get completely engaged, a clear dialog opens between the art and me.

My work is non-objective, but I start by just drawing, building up textures and layers of graphite, crayon, pigment sick, oil pastel and enamel. As the process unfolds, the veils of line, form and color take over and become the focus.

Currently, what I am discovering in my work are stories, text, conversations that I have with myself, and others, as well as the back and forth with the art itself. I find clues from the landscape and the human form but what seems to be emerging is a new vista of feelings. There are always times of sadness but I also see hints of my inner thoughts and dreams, hints of things seen in the world and in what I’ve been reading. There are reminders of people in my life, hints of human emotion, traces of tenderness, moments of beauty and lots and lots of love.