Shelf Still Life

High Line Art has commissioned Los Angeles-based artist Jonas Wood the 13th installment on High Line Billboard, that combines modernist abstraction with pop figuration.

Shelf Still Life
Located within the Edison ParkFast parking lot next to the High Line at West 18th Street and 10th Avenue, Jonas Wood has created a new work specifically for High Line Billboard titled Shelf Still Life (2013).
Shlef still life
Top and above: Jonas Wood, Shelf Still Life, 2013. Part of High Line Billboard. Installation view, Edison ParkFast, West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

Jonas Wood combines modernist abstraction with pop figuration in his densely patterned paintings of vernacular culture. The artist is known for his compositions of private spaces, such as domestic interiors and personal acquaintances, and sporting events. Like David Hockney and his flat, large-scale collages of Polaroid prints, Wood takes multi-angle photographs of his subjects and then cuts and pastes the images together to produce his fractured paintings.

Shelf still life
Jonas Wood, Shelf Still Life, 2013. Part of High Line Billboard. Installation view, Edison ParkFast, West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.
Wood’s interest in figuration extends to his inanimate objects, which gain distinct personalities through the artist’s brush. While tied to the natural world in terms of subject matter, the plants are decontextualized against the neutral background. The plant motif on the billboard also extends to the plantings on the High Line and the neighboring architecture of New York City. The lush green leaves and bright colors of the pots contrast with the neutral hues of the surrounding winter brush, acting as a reminder of the greenery that populates the elevated park in warmer months.
Shelf still life
Jonas Wood, Shelf Still Life, 2013. Part of High Line Billboard. Installation view, Edison ParkFast, West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.
“Jonas Wood takes domestic scenes and brings them into the open space of the High Line,” says Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator & Director of High Line Art. “He turns the typical experience of walking on the High Line and catching a glimpse into people’s homes into a public experience.”
Shelf Still Life
Jonas Wood, Shelf Still Life, 2013. Part of High Line Billboard. Installation view, Edison ParkFast, West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

until February 3, 2014
Jonas Wood
Shelf Still Life

High Line Billboard
Edison ParkFast
West 18th Street at 10th Avenue, New York

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