ABOUT:
”In the studio, I’m an optimist, which is not true outside.” From her London studio, artist Issy Wood explores desire, self-image, and the ways painting shapes our encounters with images. For Issy Wood, painting is an essential part of daily life. Raised by two doctors, she was heading towards a conventional academic life when pivotal museum exhibitions opened up another possibility. Later, she discovered oil paint: “It did not take long for me to understand that this was something that I didn’t really want to spend a day not doing.” “I’ve been a very self-destructive person for a great deal of my teens and my 20s, and for whatever reason, all of those nasty habits stop at the studio door.” Growing up with the internet also meant access to a lot of pain connected to an eating disorder. Still, Issy Wood draws equally on online imagery, art history, and everyday encounters. Luxury cars, household objects, and self-portraits with Korean sheet masks become a way of examining desire, control, and how we wish to be perceived: “Desire goes against our better judgment.” The process in the studio is fast and intuitive: “I try to make this process as thoughtless as possible. I find that that works best for me.” Scale emerges through trial and error. Small objects may become enormous, while imposing buildings can shrink. Using black velvet, fragments of light recall the glints and textures of Flemish still lives. Although the internet supplies a lot of imagery, painting offers a different encounter: the visible presence of a hand, with all its mistakes. For Wood, conviction matters: “I think good art is usually made by someone who cannot help but make art.” Issy Wood (b. 1993, North Carolina, USA) lives and works in London. Her paintings, rendered in oil on linen or velvet, meditate on the themes of memory, internet culture, luxury goods, and art history. Wood was educated at Goldsmiths, University of London and Royal Academy Schools, London. She have had solo shows at National Portrait Gallery, London (2026); Kistefos Museum, Norway(2026); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2025); Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2023) as well as several group exhibitions including shows at Foundation Beyeler, Riehen (2026); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark (2025); Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy (2024); Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2024). Issy Wood was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at her studio in London, September 2026. Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen Music via Upright: Call Of The Mountain by Brian Batz Andersen Drunken Debussy by Joseph Samuel Smith & Julie Blake Nikita by Taku Hayashi Confessions Of A Dreamer by Jonas Struck, Peter Rockwell, Asger Baden & Rasmus Elk Olsen Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026 Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond. Subscribe to our channel for more videos on art: 
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