Jonas Wood

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of new tennis court paintings by Jonas Wood. The gallery's tenth exhibition of Wood's work, and its first based in Los Angeles, will open on March 12, prior to the 98th Academy Awards ceremony. Produced in 2025 and 2026, each painting represents, in a distinct abstracted style, a match held at a prominent Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women's Tennis Association (WTA), or Olympic tournament. Viewed from behind the baseline, the entirety of each court is depicted in a foreshortened perspective. Neither players nor officials are shown, with spectating crowds indicated in some works by patterns of repeated brushstrokes. The paintings continue a series that Wood began in 2011, furthering his approach to the theme of sports while also engaging with abstraction and Pop art. For Wood, the standardized dimensions and varied color schemes of tennis courts allow the series to function as a form of serial abstraction, with each work balancing unique and repeated elements. Using a heightened palette of saturated colors, he interprets the appearance and surface of each court, whether grass, clay, or hard court. Also included in the paintings are nets, umpires' chairs, courtside signage, banner advertisements, and other features that distinguish one stadium from another. Some paintings include on-screen graphics of player names and running scores, reinforcing that they represent moments of actual televised matches—except for one work, Nintendo 3 (2025), which is based on a video game the artist plays with his children.