Jonas Wood’s paintings of contemporary American life blur the boundaries of figuration and abstraction. In Rosy’s Masks, an interior scene dissembles into a myriad of shapes, colours, and geometric patterns, their quiet formal tension setting the tone for Wood’s suburban subject matter. Using the domestic as a departure point for escapism, the claustrophobic composition expands into the internal space of daydream, with the muddied tv screen and stylised furnishings set like stage props against a backdrop of hallucinogenic jungly wallpaper. Giving nod to historical precedent, the masks and tabular design evoke connotation to Picasso’s primitivism and surrealism.

Wood’s painting are influenced by a serious engagement with art history that ranges from cubism to pop art, and are most notable for their reconsideration of the golden era of 20th century American painting, drawing comparison to artists such as Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, and Stuart Davis. Working almost exclusively from life studies, sketches and collaged mock-ups, Wood’s distinctively humble aesthetic creates a disorienting sense of space. Translating the three dimensional world to the flatness of the picture plane with concentrated faithfulness, Untitled (M.V. Landscape)’s off-kilter perspective and vivid interpretation of colour transform small town idyll into a cosmopolitan abstraction with cinematographic ambience.