ARTIST STATEMENT
This exhibit consists of new work from 2022 to the present. The two-dimensional works range from both large and small oil paintings to a variety of experimental printing techniques and works on paper. The paintings serve to showcase a recent summer visit to upstate New York and Maine, where I gathered inspiration from seeing a longtime friend and some of my extended family. The paintings are in general referencing both landscape and still life, drawing on the “classical” tradition of East Coast artist’s colonies of Maine and the Hudson River valley. These were either created from sketches done in situ, or from memory and latent impression upon my return to New Mexico. Additional works are from locations in and around Santa Fe, including scenes from my domestic life in the kitchen and garden.

The canvases were conceived and executed in three distinct environments. The first was a shared “Vital Spaces” studio in downtown Santa Fe, just blocks from the Plaza in a former commercial office building. I had the gift of time and space there in the basement to assemble my large lithography press, which allowed me to print my own work and that of visiting artists, including Enrique Figureda and Alfonso Barrera. This interim was followed by a second communal space, generously provided at the Fashion Outlets, where the large canvases were begun. I finally left that property when the complex was sold, moving with just my easel and unfinished canvases back home to paint in the living room.

The paintings I did for this exhibit reflect some of the emotional and environmental changes of the past two years, as well as my personal and professional wandering between the roles of artist, teacher, and single parent. The distances between productive spaces can be felt and seen over the arc of this exhibit, as well as the relative success with which I navigated wearing one mask under another.

After leaving art school printmaking became a luxury. I was extremely fortunate to maintain access to my personal press, which I used to print collaborative editions and my own works on paper. In addition to using printmaking to teach, I was also able to leverage my experience as a master printer to take part in professional opportunities within New Mexico and Texas, and to publish small editions in Berlin, Germany. The prints in this show reflect a percentage of my educational, experimental, and creative efforts with graphic arts during this time.

– Jesse Wood

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Jesse Wood is a painter and printmaker based in Santa Fe, NM. Since 1992, Wood's art has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and is included in collections, including Plan B (CCA), Helix Fine Art, Munson Gallery, Santa Fe Institute, and El Zaguán, located at the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. In collaboration with Tesuque Art Barn International, his work has been featured at the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein and Waaschhaus POP am Ring Festival in Potsdam, Germany.

Mr. Wood is an educator at The Institute of American Indian Arts, has served as a docent at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, and as an exhibition guide at SITE Santa Fe. He has also given professional presentations on collaborative lithography and printmaking at the New Mexico School for the Arts, The Roswell Artist in Residence Foundation, and the University of Texas, Austin.

After receiving an A.A. in General Studies at Santa Fe Community College, Wood enrolled in Tamarind Institute's Printer Training Program in 2018-19, where he was awarded a Professional Certificate in Collaborative Printmaking. He earned his B.F.A. in Studio Arts with the Highest Honors at The Institute of American Indian Arts in 2021. Wood is pursuing a Master of Arts in Eastern Classics at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM.

Contact: Anne Kelly at anne@historicsantafe.org or call 505.983.2567 for more information.