Miami Shade House

This work depicts a densely-packed array of potted plants within a shade house—a horticultural structure that offers protection from excessive sunlight, wind, and temperature fluctuations. Characteristic of Wood’s distinctive visual language honed over two decades, the layered, montage quality results from the artist’s practice of drawing and painting based on photo-collages composed of his snapshots and found images. For Miami Shade House, Wood began with a photograph sourced from social media of botanist Mick Mittermeier’s rare and expansive collection of plants in Florida. The artist has consistently focused on botanicals throughout his practice—represented as either still lifes or elements within larger scenes— highlighting his interest in collecting and topologizing, as well as in the history of modernist painting and artists such as Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse.