COVER IMAGE: Bangkok Dawn. Elegy for the Quiet
Acrylic on canvas, 122x153cm
8 Clarendon Cross | W11 4APlaceycontemporarygallery.co.uk
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.
“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.
COLOUR RUSH
Around Us, Amongst Us, Within Us
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 128x160cm, £6000
The Meeting
Acrylic on Canvas
152x152cm, 2014
£7500
Watching These People
Acrylic on Canvas
153x122cm, 2014
£6000
"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
Forest Guardians I, II & III
Acrylic and Oil on Canvas
Each approx 51x39cm, 2014
£1000 each
When the leaves fall priority should
be given to watching the sun rise
Acrylic & Oil on Canvas
153x122cm, 2014, £6000
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
£6000
Bangkok Dawn. Elegy for the quiet
Acrylic on Canvas, 122x153cm
£6000
Gong Hey Fat Choy
Acrylic & Oil on Canvas
121x121cm, 2014
£4500
Arrival
Acrylic & Oil on Canvas
90x90cm, 2014
£3500
PRINTS
Wood's prints are fully resolved works but often stimulate the content for larger
canvases. The radical simplification he employs in his woodcuts carrying through into the
paintings making them bolder and starker.
Hunting Scene
Limited Edition Woodcut
43x55cm, edition of 6
£500 unframed
Remix 2013
Limited Edition Giclee & Screen print
Collaboration with Zoran Poposki, edition of 10
£300 unframed
LAURENCE WOOD | CV
Born in Lancashire in 1957
Graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1985
Currently living and working in the UK
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2014 8th Artelaguna Art Prize, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
2013 Translations, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong
2013 Artwalk Extra, Artsbus, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
2010 Deaths and Entrances, St.Mary’s Church, Faversham, Kent, UK
2008 Art Power for Future Hope, Canada Square, London
2007 Oskar Hansen International Symposium, Bergen Arkitekt Skole, Norway
2005 Les Mervielles Du Monde, Museum of Fine Arts, Dunkirk, France
2005 For and From, The Metropole Gallery, Folkestone
2005 Drawing 200, The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts, London
2001 Reispijn-Reislust, Hans Brinker Gallery, Amsterdam
1999 The Vauxhall Gardens, Norwich School of Art
1998 New paintings, Palace Theatre, Watford
1990-96 3-ways, Contemporary British Painting, British Council tour
Africa/Asia
1995 Recent paintings, group show, RCA, London
1994 Paper-based, Imperial College, London
1989 New paintings, Thun, Switzerland
1988 Druce Landscape Competition, Camden arts Centre, London
1988 Royal Overseas League Annual, London
1988 Stormstruck, Petworth House, Sussex
1986 Venice, Royal Festival Hall, London
1986 Hunting Group Art Prizes, London
1985 Recent Paintings, Solomon Gallery, London
1985 Pace-setters Five, City Museum, Peterborough
1985 DH Lawrence Festival Exhibition, Nottingham
1985 Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Mall Galleries, London
PUBLIC ARTWORKS/COMMISSIONS
2006 Designs for Cayzer courtyard, Lee’s Court Mansion, Kent
1993 Watford Borough Council, Foyer Painting, Munden Tower Block
1992 Watford Borough Council, Charter Place Shopping Centre Mural
1983 Leicester City Council, various murals
COLLECTIONS
His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, Highgrove House, UK
National Trust Foundation for Art, UK
HSBC Bank HQ, Canary Wharf, London, UK
Watford Borough Council, Watford, UK
Royal College of Art, London, UK
Imperial College, London, UK
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 Tech-
nique, 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