CoRK NORTH, STUDIO C

Tony Wood was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee but left there to pursue a career in art. Wood studied with photo-realists in Columbia, South Carolina, and studied contemporary pop art on the streets of San Francisco and finally expressive and realistic figure at the University of North Florida where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2001.

Wood is currently based in Jacksonville, FL at the CoRK Arts District in Riverside and teaches art and design at Stanton College Preparatory School. Wood recently had an exhibition based on a westerner’s point-of-view of Japanese Ama pearl divers from the 1960’s in the South Gallery, at the Wilson Center and a collaborative exhibition of paintings and performance with playwright and musician, Jennifer Chase and actor, Eva Matthews at the gallery at CoRK North and will be exhibited again in January at the Cummer Museum.

Wood has shown his work throughout the Southeast and can be found in many private and academic collections.

“My paintings seem to always gravitate towards people, faces and the figure. I believe I am looking for an emotional connection, a certain action that speaks to our humanity, our biography, our wit, and I want to say it with subtle but universally recognizable human gestures and nuanced body language. Because I choose to paint people and their emotions, I have often been called a romantic, trying to only paint and draw beautiful things. Sometimes this is true – I like to accentuate the beautiful in an often ugly world – but I’m not naïve. I also want my art to reflect my time and my truth. This is a truth in metaphor only because the idea of a naturalistic painting as something other than illusion is laughable. It is a lie by nature. A lie made beautiful, poignant or ugly by the artist. I am interested in this beautiful lie and how I can use it to find my place in the vast representation of the human in art.”

Visit Tony's site