The setting is already a blend of surreal bliss, the swirling and serene grounds of the Kistefos Museum in Jevnaker in southeastern central Norway. But this is also the perfect setting for an Issy Wood exhibition, the London-based painter who is about pushing the boundaries of realism to almost intimately surreal levels. Fish, Fish, Duck feels like an exploration of self, but I’ve always seen Wood’s work to be display of space; how we see ourselves in it, how we occupy it, how much of it do we claim as our own? Her source material being advertisements, internet image searches and pop-culture, I think that space argument holds true. These are the things that hold space around us, almost omnipresent, and we have to figure out a way to find ourselves a space in this dichotomy of a non-physical presence.
The velvet surfaces upon which Wood paints on adds to that hazy attempt at personal intimacy and seeking a connection. It’s hard to get there, and the paintings create a fuzzy path. As an image-collector, too, it captures the spirit of a distance between the self and the original image itself.
That’s not to say there isn’t humor in the works. The have a levity at times, an absurdity, the kind of laugh you have when you scroll on your phone through TikToks or IG Reels and some of the world’s most banal and utterly creative self-parody begins to emerge. That part of Wood’s story is here, too, and the acclaimed painter seems completely immersed in the contemporary moment while also aware of the tradition of a good painting. —Evan Pricco
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