Brandon Woods (b. 1987, Knoxville, TN, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist who creates dynamic abstract paintings on shaped panels and prismatic photographs. Woods earned his MFA in Painting from SCAD in 2015 and his BFA in Studio Art from Middle Tennessee State University in 2010. He has received numerous awards for his work, including an American Rescue Plan grant to construct a large-scale work based on the James Webb Space Telescope that is now on permanent display in the Emporium in downtown Knoxville. His work has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States and internationally: in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, Hong Kong, Canada, France, Ireland, Netherlands, and South Korea. His work will be permanently installed on the moon later this year. He currently lives and works in Knoxville.
Statement
I create dynamic abstract paintings on dimensional shaped panels. Each piece I create is the result of an inquiry, addressing different aspects of art, math, science, and craft. Equally inspired by the beauty found in nature and the beauty found in science and innovation, these inquiries have led me to delve into the mathematical structure of flowers, to explore the planets and stars and our relationship to them through science and mythology, and to investigate the effect of geometric patterns on our visual perception and the role memory plays in that process. This approach to making my work has resulted in my own innovations in painting, woodworking, and most recently, prismatic photography. Ultimately, through my work I seek to deepen my understanding of the world and my place in it and to encourage my viewers to do the same for themselves.
I use photography as a means to explore the same concepts I am exploring in my paintings: dimensionality, color, and the role of memory in the translation of sight into perception. I create my prismatic photographs by shooting through an array of prisms mounted onto the end of my camera lens, so that all the distortions and spectral shifts in my photographs are captured in-camera, not added in post. My prism array pushes my camera beyond what it can normally see. The reflections and refractions in the prism creates a hybrid panorama/multiple-exposure effect, inserting information from 180 degrees around me, allowing me the option to focus on one single subject or create scenes of rapid-fire shifting perspectives, all with the maximum amount of color packed into every pixel.