Nicholas Wood – Recent Works: Drawings/Sculptural Objects will be on display March 28–April 25, at William Campbell Contemporary Art. An opening reception will be held on Spring Gallery Night, Saturday, March 28, from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The show will feature Wood's colorful, abstract works on paper interspersed with his expressive, precisely rendered wall sculptures.
"I have always been intrigued by the dimensional, spatially interactive and material nature of sculptural form, yet also drawn to the frontal, illusionistic pictorial quality which drawings and paintings offer," says Wood, who likes to show his two- and three-dimensional pieces in the same space. They play off each other visually, while also offering a glimpse into the artist's process. Wood's charcoal and pastel drawings began as visualizations of emerging sculptures, but over time have evolved into their own thoughtful and visually complex body of work. And as they are paired with the three-dimensional pieces, viewers can see how the two media diverge and coalesce, informing and re-informing one another.
Wood's sculptural objects consist of painted wood and ceramic pieces mounted on the wall. These hybrid works—encapsulating both two and three dimensions—penetrate the surrounding space while also retaining what the artist calls "vertical frontality." They incorporate shadow as well, which becomes integral to each display, affording additional shape and dimension. The pieces evoke a refined tactility, as layers of pigment are applied, sanded, reapplied, and smoothed. All these factors merge to further activate visual and intellectual conversation between art and viewer.
Wood's abstract drawings and wall sculptures exhibit an austere energy, as cleanly delineated, flowing shapes and forms hover atop their surfaces. The imagery often references recognizable objects, though from an altered and tangential artist's perspective. They become universal in that vein, allowing viewers to connect on a variety of personal and aesthetic levels. Wood remarks, "While the initial choices of imagery and composition are conceptually established, all the works are open enough to pose a variety of interpretations. This variety presents multiple layers and possible readings and for me, floats in a state that like abstraction itself, esteems ambiguity and discovery."
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A highly reputed, active artist across the Metroplex and beyond, Nicholas Wood has honed his skills over nearly four decades. He has exhibited his drawings and sculptural objects in dozens of one-person and group shows in venues throughout Texas, in Fort Worth, Dallas, Arlington, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, among other cities. Nationally, he has participated in shows from coast to coast, in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, New York State, and North Carolina, to name a few. He has shown in Paris and Bad Könisgshofen and Trier, Germany, as well. Public art projects include collaborating on The Bridge II, a steel sculpture next to the Arlington Museum of Art, and The Bridge I, a correlating sculpture in Arlington's sister city Bad Königshofen, Germany. As a curator, Wood has organized shows at the Arlington Museum of Art, The Gallery at UTA, the Fort Worth International Center, and Dallas' 500X Gallery.
Wood's artwork has appeared in many publications, including ARTnews, Arts + Culture magazine, American Ceramics, the Arlington Morning News, Ceramics Monthly, D magazine, the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Weekly, the New York Times, Star-Telegram, and the Texas Art Revue. He has been featured in numerous books as well, among them Art Tiles (Lark Studio Series, Sterling Publishing), Architectural Ceramics (Lark Book Publishing), and A Century of Sculpture in Texas 1889–1989 (University of Texas Press).
Many private and corporate art collections feature Wood's work, including the City of San Francisco Arts' Commission, London's Dorchester Hotel, the Hill Gillstrap Law Firm, the New York State College of Ceramics, Pacific Enterprise Oil Company, Dallas Southeast Banking Corporation, Southwestern Bell Telephone, Texas Instruments, US Trust Company of Texas, and UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Nicholas Wood earned his MFA from New York State College at Alfred University, and his BFA from San Francisco State University. He currently serves as a professor of art and art history at the University of Texas at Arlington.
ABOUT THE GALLERY
Founded in 1974 by William and Pam Campbell, William Campbell Contemporary Art exhibits high-quality contemporary art in a variety of media, including paintings, works on paper, mixed-media constructions, photography, prints, ceramics, and sculpture. By exhibiting nationally recognized artists, along with new and emerging talent, the gallery aims to nurture an awareness and appreciation of the exciting diversity found in contemporary art.
