Bradley Wood

Canadian artist Bradley Wood paints bold and decadent interiors populated by stylized figures. Engaged in recreational domestic activities, the depicted figures languish in leisure as extravagant artwork, furniture, and fixtures pepper the walls around them. Engulfed in lush textiles, Wood’s figures often sport loud patterns and bright colors that cocoon them in their lush surroundings, as if partially defined by their material possessions. Heavy, glossy oil paint applied to canvas in loose, painterly strokes heightens the perceived mystery of his theatrical characters and their seductive lifestyles.  While the figures in Wood’s paintings often appear relaxed, the viewer’s status as voyeur suggests an ambiguous sense of yearning for the depicted fortunes underscored by a sense of anxiety toward the excess of their display. Fusing together historical precedents with his own dreams, memories, and experiences, Wood’s cinematic canvases offer a behind-the-scenes peek into imaginary playgrounds of affluence. Viewers are thus compelled to acknowledge the human ambivalence toward wealth and indulgence, exploring the nature of one’s attraction to material objects.  

Bradley Wood (b. 1970, Regina, Saskatchewan) lives  in Larchmont, New York, and works in Portchester, New York. Wood has a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. He also studied Art and Experimental Film at CalArts, and Art and Design at Art Center Europe, Montreux, Switzerland. In 2017, he received the Moth Art Prize and residency in Ireland. He has also been selected as an artist resident at ChaNorth in Pine Plains, NY and at the Woolworth building in NYC through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. 

Wood’s work has been exhibited extensively in Canada, the United States, and Europe. He was featured in the acclaimed Human Condition group exhibition that took over an abandoned Los Angeles hospital and included in the Exit Art Biennial II: Traffic. He was also awarded a spot in the AIM (Artists in the Marketplace) program at the Bronx Museum.