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The art of the American South and Midwest is the soul of
American Art. From New Orleans up the Mississippi to St. Louis, the people and places of America's heartland have been captured
by the artist Joe Wood. He has traveled it's many roads, and have lived in it's darkest and most obscure regions.
Wood has called
his art a mixture of regionalism, futurism, and realism--all tossed together like the gumbo of rich and poor, black and white,
good and bad that is truly American. His work has been sold around the world as high quality contemporary art.
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| Biggie Smalls. (1996) |
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| Mystery Highway (2008) |
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| Civilization (2007) |
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| "Girl From St. Louis" (2008) |
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In 1997, a young 20 year old Missouri boy first felt the
urge to pick up a paintbrush, and he has never quite put it down since. He began drawing at the age of 12, copying the likenesses
of Civil War Generals out of a book. In the process, the young man named Joe Wood discovered a talent for imitating the places
and people that he met, and soon saw the value of recording, in his own way, the things that he saw around him.
Come take a step inside our Main Gallery
Browse Joe Wood's new book Ugly Water (2006)
Step into the gallery of Drawings and Paintings by the artist Joseph Wood. Click on a thumbnail to see a larger image
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| The Loft at Night (2003) |
Having spent much of 1995-98 in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, Wood learned to play the junkie
piano by ear, listening to the local French Market players. It was during this period that Wood developed his abstract style,
which borrows from the Art Deco, Cubist, & Futurist styles, yet retains the skill of his portraitist/landscape training.
(Courtesy
of U*Space Gallery)
Wood is also known for his works in oil such as "The Offices of Cortland Street" (2001) and
his African-American drawings such as "Recompense" (2004). He is credited with the style known as Cubo-Futo-Regionalism;
a style which combines elements of 20th century Cubism and Futurism with American Regionalist composition and color.
(Courtesy
of Wikipedia)
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| Southern Prayer (2005) |
Wood's fascination with race, American history, social and cultural traditions vividly illustrates his writing and art
with the native flavor of his region. "The regional communication of Art, Literature, Music, and Myth have a central place
in my work," says Wood. "These messages that link old to young, age to age, and soul to soul are on one hand universal--yet,
on the other--unique, and uniquely American. They are found in Robert Johnson's blues, in Thomas Hart Benton's paintings,
and in William Faulkner's prose. Whatever that American-ness is--is very important for the Artist, the Writer, the Musician
to record."
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| Mississippi River Fog (1999) |
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| "The Great Uniter" (2008) |
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