Dorian Wood
Caca
February 17th - March 10th 2024
Monte Vista Projects is pleased to present Caca, the first U.S. solo exhibition of multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood’s visual work. Caca emerges from Wood’s nightly ritual of documenting the world’s troubles and follies through ink-based illustrations that depict swirling genitalia, gender-absent bodies, distorted icons and coprophagic musings. Over the past 10 years Wood has amassed hundreds of these “disruptive self portraits.” Caca collects a selection of these illustrations, grouped into series by ink color, and will include a mural on the gallery's north wall created by Wood specifically for the exhibition, keeping with the artist's ongoing intent of "infecting" spaces.
Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her artistic practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people.
Wood has performed at institutions that include The Broad, Los Angeles, CA (2018), REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA (2019), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, CA (2010), Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid, Spain (2019), the City Hall of Madrid, Spain (2015), Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris, Mexico City, Mexico (2019), Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2017), Mousonturm, Frankfurt, Germany (2014), Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany (2014) and Moods, Zurich, Switzerland (2019), and at festivals that include Pacific Standard Time, Los Angeles, CA (2011), OUTsider Fest, Austin, TX (2019), Festival Cruilla, Barcelona, Spain (2017), WorldPride Madrid, Spain (2017), Festivals Kometa, Riga, Latvia (2016), Moers Festival, Germany (2017), Cully Jazz Festival, Switzerland (2015) and Saint Ghetto Festival, Bern, Switzerland (2017).
From 2019 to 2020, Wood completed several successful international tours with their chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas, XAVELA LUX AETERNA. In 2022, Wood debuted their tribute to the singer Lhasa De Sela, entitled LHASA, at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Madrid, in collaboration with singer Carmina Escobar and composer Adrián Cortés. That same year, Wood presented Mares Ocultos, a multimedia chamber music project exploring the nature of male heterosexuality, at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In 2023, Wood premiered the 12-hour composition/installation Canto de Todes at REDCAT in Los Angeles.
As a visual artist, Wood has created illustrations and video installations that have been exhibited in galleries around the world, including Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2022), La Carboneria, Huesca, Spain (2020), Fierman Gallery, New York (2020) and the Queer Biennial, Los Angeles (2018). They have also directed several short films, among them "The angel" (2023), Low's "Disappearing" video (2021), “American Savagery” (2021), “FAF” (2021), “The World’s Gone Beautiful” (2020), “PAISA” (2019, co-directed with Graham Kolbeins), “O” (2014) and “La Cara Infinita” (2013).
Wood is a recipient of a Los Angeles County Performing Arts Recovery Grant, a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project Grant, a NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, a Creative Capital Award and an Art Matters Foundation grant, and a past artist-in-residence at MacDowell Residency, Loghaven Artist Residency, Building Bridges Art Exchange, Etopia, Centro de Arte y Tecnologia and MASS Gallery.
Wood has released over a dozen recordings, most recently the albums You are clearly in perversion (with Thor Harris) (Astral Editions, 2023) and Excesiva (Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2023).