8 Clarendon Cross | W11 4AP laceycontemporarygallery.co.uk
COVER IMAGE: Bangkok Dawn. Elegy for the Quiet Acrylic on canvas, 122x153cm
LAURENCE WOOD
is a British painter living and working in Kent, London and Hong Kong. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, and a Chase Taliani Venice scholar with a successful career in various fields of the creative arts and higher education spanning over 30 years. Wood spent two years travelling, living and working in South East Asia and since returning has transformed and developed his work into a new level of formal simplification, cryptic content, and increased focus on the expressive potential of colour. Laurence Wood describes his work as: “The result of some unexplained need to externalise my emotions in a visual way and a childhood love of painting, drawing, poetry and my dad's self-taught piano playing.” Using repeating figures, emblematic forms and layers of constructed colour the artist creates a visual poetry, with a collage of thought provoking gestures. The work contains autobiographical elements, a result of being submerged in a different culture. There is a constant flow between new cultural experiences and shifting identities. Once again settling into a new culture, Wood continues to employ cryptic and observational content to engage the viewers with intrigue and reflection, inviting the viewer to emotionally respond and return to the paintings time and time again.
COLOUR RUSH “I experienced an amazing colour rush in South East Asia that transformed my work” - Laurence Wood Wood's experiences in South East Asia injected a surge of lush colour and cryptic content into his work, generating a fresh take on his approach to exploring the content and allegorical imagery in his paintings. Wood records his observations and ideas with watercolour, and his use of fast-drying acrylic paint for his larger canvas-based work, is a natural watery choice for him, ideal for working quickly, building up layers and developing colour intensity. He strives for a balance between emotional impact and intellectual poetic content. The paintings include thought-provoking imagery derived from the countries and cultures Wood experienced. These include perforated Indonesian screens, stars, lotus flowers, carved guardian figures, tourists, east/west fashion fusion, ubiquitous 'hoodies', architectural references, urban and tropical scenery, propaganda poster styles, and autobiographical elements. Alongside these emblematic details, Wood’s paintings have a strong immediate vivid presence through his breaking down of forms, in favour of expressive colour.
Around Us, Amongst Us, Within Us Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 128x160cm, £6000
The Meeting Acrylic on Canvas 152x152cm, 2014 ÂŁ7500
"There is something about stepping out of your local world and local knowledge to seek the enduring and everlasting satisfaction we all want. 'Watching These People' explores this. We are all searching and watching others whilst trying to remain hidden and secure behind our sunglasses" - Laurence Wood
Watching These People Acrylic on Canvas 153x122cm, 2014 ÂŁ6000
Forest Guardians I, II & III Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Each approx 51x39cm, 2014 ÂŁ1000 each
When the leaves fall priority should be given to watching the sun rise Acrylic & Oil on Canvas 153x122cm, 2014, ÂŁ6000
REFLECTION & TRANSLATION Wood’s paintings are repositories of reflections, recorded images, and shifting emotional responses. Some paintings explore his sense of 'place'- his immediate environment, while others explore figures and the thematic opportunities they provide. “In one sense they are all inspired by living and working within different cultures, reflecting upon and translating new experiences" - Laurence Wood Some works clearly display the process of their own manufacture. The viewer can observe the stops and starts, the passages of underpainting or overpainting, the initial impulse, and the final correction, as the background, foreground, object and subject, interact and shift position. The painting's form, content, and subject, can evolve and change dramatically, or can progress in planned pre-ordained steps. For Wood, the painting process is about resolving these often competing components in a visually dynamic and colourful way.
Redcoat’s Dream Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 90x90cm, 2014 £3500
Music of the Mosques. Rimbun Dahan Acrylic & Oil on Canvas, 90x90cm, 2014 £3500
New Flat Painting. Hong Kong Oil & Acrylic on Canvas 153x122cm ÂŁ6000
Bangkok Dawn. Elegy for the quiet Acrylic on Canvas, 122x153cm ÂŁ6000
Gong Hey Fat Choy Acrylic & Oil on Canvas 121x121cm, 2014 £4500
Arrival Acrylic & Oil on Canvas 90x90cm, 2014 ÂŁ3500
PRINTS
Hunting Scene Limited Edition Woodcut 43x55cm, edition of 6 ÂŁ500 unframed
Wood's prints are fully resolved works but often stimulate the content for larger canvases. The radical simpliďŹ cation he employs in his woodcuts carrying through into the paintings making them bolder and starker.
Remix 2013 Limited Edition Giclee & Screen print Collaboration with Zoran Poposki, edition of 10 ÂŁ300 unframed
LAURENCE WOOD | CV Born in Lancashire in 1957
1988 Royal Overseas League Annual, London
Graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1985
1988 Stormstruck, Petworth House, Sussex
Currently living and working in the UK
1986 Venice, Royal Festival Hall, London 1986 Hunting Group Art Prizes, London
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
1985 Recent Paintings, Solomon Gallery, London
2014 8th Artelaguna Art Prize, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
1985 Pace-setters Five, City Museum, Peterborough
2013 Translations, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong
1985 DH Lawrence Festival Exhibition, Nottingham
2013 Artwalk Extra, Artsbus, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
1985 Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Mall Galleries, London
2010 Deaths and Entrances, St.Mary’s Church, Faversham, Kent, UK 2008 Art Power for Future Hope, Canada Square, London
PUBLIC ARTWORKS/COMMISSIONS
2007 Oskar Hansen International Symposium, Bergen Arkitekt Skole, Norway
2006 Designs for Cayzer courtyard, Lee’s Court Mansion, Kent
2005 Les Mervielles Du Monde, Museum of Fine Arts, Dunkirk, France
1993 Watford Borough Council, Foyer Painting, Munden Tower Block
2005 For and From, The Metropole Gallery, Folkestone
1992 Watford Borough Council, Charter Place Shopping Centre Mural
2005 Drawing 200, The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts, London
1983 Leicester City Council, various murals
2001 Reispijn-Reislust, Hans Brinker Gallery, Amsterdam 1999 The Vauxhall Gardens, Norwich School of Art
COLLECTIONS
1998 New paintings, Palace Theatre, Watford
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, Highgrove House, UK
1990-96 3-ways, Contemporary British Painting, British Council tour
National Trust Foundation for Art, UK
Africa/Asia
HSBC Bank HQ, Canary Wharf, London, UK
1995 Recent paintings, group show, RCA, London
Watford Borough Council, Watford, UK
1994 Paper-based, Imperial College, London
Royal College of Art, London, UK
1989 New paintings, Thun, Switzerland
Imperial College, London, UK
1988 Druce Landscape Competition, Camden arts Centre, London
Bergen Arkitekt Skole, Norway
University for the Creative Arts, Kent, UK De Montfort University, Leicester, UK Kent Science Park, UK Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, HK Numerous private collections SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND FEATURES 1993 Author, Watercolour Masterclass, Harper Collins 1993 Consultant Editor, Artists Wisdomm, Inklink 1989 Consultant Editor, The Challenge of Landscape Painting, Collins 1987 Consultant Editor/Writer, Advanced Marker Technique, MacDonald 1987 Consultant Editor/Illustrator, Tonal Values, Vista 1987 Contributing Editor/Illustrator, Encyclopaedia of Drawing Techniques, Headline
BACK IMAGE: The Meeting Acrylic on Canvas 152x152cm, 2014