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Josephine Wood is a London-based artist working primarily in painting. She holds a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College and a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art & Design. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including at the Whitechapel Gallery, Turps Gallery, Cross Lane Projects, Vitrine Gallery, Kingsgate Gallery, and Kunstraum Riehen, Basel, Glasgow Centre of Contemporary Art, and The Royal Academy of Art, Ghent. She has participated in numerous curated group shows alongside artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick, and Valie Export, and has presented solo exhibitions in London. She was awarded the Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 2024.

Statement

The themes in my figurative paintings are based around the body and the domestic/home environment. A recurring idea in my work is to transform the mundane into something monumental. Interactions between the feminine body and its environment are heightened to the point of absurdity, sometimes comical, and sometimes horrifyingly so. My figures are fragmented and disjointed; severed limbs merge with household objects such as tables and lamps. The boundaries between subject and object are disrupted, and the body and interiors almost collapse into one another, both materially and conceptually.

In this playful reimagining of domestic scenarios, the interiors function not only as physical spaces but also as psychological and social constructs. My working-class background informs this work; the paintings draw on lived experiences of deprivation and adversity. Personal and collective memories are repeatedly reworked, resurfacing in altered forms across, and beneath the surface.

Education

2006 Postgraduate Diploma, Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art & Design, UAL

1998 BA Hons, Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Solo/Two-Person Exhibitions
2025 Stigma, two-person show with Petra Williams, Koppel Collective Gallery, London
2024 Hardcell, Classwaroom, London
2023 My Bloody Finger, 16.9 Billboard Commission, Kingsgate Gallery, London
2015 Self Serve, 25 Cheriton (Empty Shop Unit), London
2014 Josephine Wood at Punk&Sheep, Punk&Sheep, London

Group Exhibitions

2026 Forthcoming - The Gloaming Place, 35 Blumen Gallery, curated by Joshua Uvieghara, Krefeld, Germany

2026 Analogue, curated by Sarah Elson, Hypha Projects, London

2025 Portable Frictions, The Koppel Project, London
2025 Shared Origins, Winns Gallery, London
2025 Blink, Safehouse, London
2025 Dark Spring – Syzygy, Cross Lane Projects Vestry St, London
2024 Turps Residency Exhibition, Turps Gallery, London
2024 Summer Exhibition, Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery, UK, invited by Michael Archer
2021 The Commission, University Women's Club, London
2021 The Art of Painting, Copeland Gallery, London
2019 Freeze-frame Fast-forward, Koppel Project Central
2019 Sick Monday, exhibition, The Horse Hospital, London
2019 If I Was a Rich Girl, Kunstraum Riehen, Basel – curated by Clare Kenny, with Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick, Valie Export
2019 Total Eclipse of the Heart, Watson, Farley and Williams, London
2018 Women Can't Paint, Turps Gallery, London – curated by Marcus Harvey
2018 Sick Monday, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow

2018 Sick Monday, screening, Deptford Cinema, London

2018 Sick Monday, screening, Genesis Cinema, London
2017 NOI, PSW, Rum Factory, Bow Arts Trust, London
2016 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London – invited by Dan Coombs
2015 Exeter Contemporary Open, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter – finalist
2015 The East London Painting Prize, Rum Factory, London – finalist
2015 Revolutionary Britain: Art, Power & Politics, Harts Lane Studio, London
2012 Natural Language, Vitrine Gallery, London
2012 Dead Darlings, Royal Academy of Art, Ghent
2011 All That Glitters, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2011 Press, RED Gallery, London
2010 Supermarket Art Fair, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
2009 Mouthing Off, Vitrine Gallery, London
2009 New Age, Y Gallery, Tartu, Estonia
2009 Scare in the Community, Core Arts, London
2008 Subb Urbe of Sound, The Elevator Gallery, London

2008 The Coma Lounge, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh

2007 Hung Drawn Quasi Stellar Object, Portman Gallery, London
2007 Journey to the Foul Side of the Sun, Wittenplatz, Amsterdam
2007 House, 211 Richmond Road, Hackney, London
2006 Growbag, Mile End Arts Pavilion, London
2006 I’ll Show You Mine, Chelsea Space, Chelsea College of Art & Design, London

Awards, Commissions & Residencies

2025 Turps Residency, Turps Banana, London

2024 The Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant

2023 Commissioned for Billboard 16.9, Kingsgate Gallery, London

2021 Nominated for The Arts Foundation Futures Award by Marcus Harvey

2018 Commissioned short film "Black Friday' collaboration with artist Lee Holden, supported by Art Council England for Sick Monday, an artist-film touring exhibition

Supported by The Arts Council England
2015 The East London Painting Prize – finalist
2015 Exeter Contemporary Open – finalist

2008 COLAB’08 Residency, Tallinn, Estonia

Publications
2024 Catalogue, Redcar Summer Exhibition, RCCAG – text by Michael Archer
2020 Sight & Sound, Lindsay Hallam
2019 Catalogue, Sick Monday – Lindsay Hallam
2019 Garageland Reviews
2019 Wall Street International
2015 Exeter Express and Echo (newspaper)
2015 Catalogue, Exeter Contemporary Open
2015 Catalogue, The East London Painting Prize – text by Oliver Basciano
2013 Art & Music – The Saatchi Gallery Magazine

Talks
2024 Artist Talk - The Essential School of Painting, London
2023 Artist Talk – Reading School of Art
2023 Artist Talk – University Centre St Helens, Liverpool
2023 Artist Talk – Time, Space, Paint: A Conversation, Liverpool Independent Biennial
2018 Panel – Women Can't Paint, Turps Gallery

2012 Artist Talk - Westminster University, London