Eleanor Wood
Eleanor Wood was born and grew up in London. She studied at Winchester School of Art and Chelsea School of Art, where she graduated, respectively, with a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Painting. For many years she was based in Norfolk, where she developed a body of post-minimalist work referencing aspects of the natural environment. In 2002 she moved to California, where the more intense light had a marked impact, subsequently returning to East Anglia in 2017.
At first glance, her recent works appear to have a strong affinity with minimalist or post-minimalist art. However, they are distinct in being acutely tactile and open-ended, evoking wide-ranging haptic and visual associations that give the work a poetic sense of age and wear. The works generally evoke associations with pages and writing, with the structure of cloth, and sometimes with aerial views and plans. Typically made in series and exhibited in groups, they are quiet and subtle, but are also bound by an insistent geometry.
The majority of her work explores the interaction of watercolour with a particular paper, but she has made drawings on the inside covers of early twentieth-century books (2020), a series where additions are made to laser prints of the inside of book dust jackets (2025), and most recently is working on wafer-thin panel (2026). Cipher (2020-) consists of a series of small works made on the front and back inside covers of early twentieth-century books. Each book belonged to a family member and has sentimental value. The imperfections, blemishes, stains and yellowing engage and preoccupy; they allude to the relatives who were the original owners. The latest work is made on basswood (hardwood from the American lime, or linden, tree), and this material is referenced in the title of the series, Linden. Individually the works measure 5 x 7 inches and combine gesso ground, oil paint and pencil.
Her work has been shown in the UK at the Jerwood Gallery, London (2017), East Gallery, Norwich (2018), the Icon Gallery, Birmingham (1988), Camden Arts Centre, London (1987) and the Walker Gallery, Liverpool (1980). Internationally, she has exhibited in the US (2006-24), Canada (2021), Australia (1998), Russia (1992) and the Netherlands (1990). Exhibitions include Debut: Inaugural Open, & Gallery, Edinburgh (2024); HARDPAPER, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton (2024); Microcosmos, Don Soker Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2023); Perpetual Arrival, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough (2023); Liquid Light: Painting in Watercolour, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (2022); and Process, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, Canada (2021). In 2026 her work was included in the John Ruskin Prize Exhibition in London.
Her work is in collections in the UK and US, including Arts Council England; the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; UCSF Davis Medical Center, CA; and the Monterey Collections.
She received the Winsor & Newton Award (London Group Exhibition) in 2015 and the Holt Art Prize (Sainsbury Centre) in 2020, and was a prizewinner at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2025.
