Vanessa Woods

ECHO POEMS

Biography

Woods graduated with an MFA with honors, from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artwork and films have been exhibited internationally including Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco, Stanford Art Spaces at Stanford University, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and The Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose. Woods has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship from the SF Arts Commission, a Film Arts Foundation Grant, and the San Francisco Art Institute's MFA Fellowship. She has also been awarded residencies at Djerassi, the Headlands Center for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony and in Pont-Aven, France, through the Museum of Pont-Aven. www.vanessawoods.com

Artist Statement

Woods’s collages utilize subversive associations to re-imagine and re-contextualize contemporary and historical narratives. The material for her collages comes from a broad range of sources including art history books, photo books, vintage/contemporary magazines, found paper ephemera, etc. In each piece she creates, the original image is decontextualized through the act of cutting and it’s meaning re-contextualized through new associations. For example, the draped red fabric in Rubens’s Venus and Adonis might become a bundled head on the body of an ancient Aegean sculpture. By imposing new meanings onto visual material intended for mass consumption, collage provides a means to examine and critique our image-saturated world. In her current body of work, titled Emic/Etic, invented idols, imagined rituals, and reconfigured symbols serve to create new mythologies that collapse internal (emic) and external (etic) orders of classification.

www.vanessawoods.com

Solo and 2-Person Exhibitions

2017
- Echo Poems, Collages by Catie O’Leary and Vanessa Woods
  Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
- Emic/Etic: Collage by Vanessa Woods
  a.Muse Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013
- The Back of Beyond: Works by Vanessa Woods
  Pool Art Center Gallery, Drury University, Springfield, MO
2011
- Mythologies, Galley Visio
  University of Missouri—Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO
2009
- USA Meets Regensburg: Films, Photography and Live Music
  Kino Akademiesalon, Regensburg, Germany
2004
- The Altered Lens: Photographic Works
  Lerner Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2017
- Alt Left, Local Treasures
  Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley CA
- Marvelous
  An International Exhibition of Collage, Sebastopol, CA
2016
- Metamorphic: Collage in the Dada/Surrealist Tradition
  Stanford Art Spaces, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
- Hybrid Collage Show
  Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA
- Connect and Collect
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2015
- Collagistas
  Taabya Art Space, Thessalonki, Greece
- Hybrid Collage Show
  a.Muse gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Connect and Collect
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2013
- Connect and Collect
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2012
- ZERO1 Biennial
  San Jose CA
- 50-50 IV
  Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
- Axis Gallery 7th Annual Juried Exhibition
  Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA (Juror, Aspara DiQuinzio, SF MOMA, San Francisco)
- 4 x 4: Four Months/Four Video Artists
  The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
- Nightlight
  Somarts, San Francisco, CA
- Connect and Collect
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2011 Dreams
- The Center for Fine Art Photography
  Fort Collins, CO
- 50-50 III
  Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
- Mix It Up Media
  Santa Cruz Art League, Santa Cruz, CA
- The Altered Book Show
  Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Marin, CA
2010
- Glimpses in Time, 2010
  Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA, Creativity Award
- The Lens Based Image
  Desotorow Gallery, Savannah, GA
- Taste: A Garden of Earthy Delights
  Root Division Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Intersection
  21 Grand Artists Gallery, Oakland, CA
- Photowork 10
  Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY (Juror Nat Trotman, Guggenhiem Museum of Art, NY)
2009
- The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art Annual Fall Art Exhibition and Auction
  San Jose, CA
2009
- The Annual Monotype Marathon Print Exhibition
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
- Hypnagogia
  Anon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008
- Small Works Will
  Small Works Well, Barnard College, New York, NY
- Vital Signs
  Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
- The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art Annual Fall Art Exhibition and Auction
  San Jose, CA
- Headlands Graduate Fellow Exhibition
  Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
- The Annual Monotype Marathon Print Exhibition
  San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2007
- Introductions
  Root Division Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Wunderkammer
  Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA
- Vernissage: MFA Graduate Exhibition
  Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
- Parables of Isolation: Rubric Experimental Video Exhibition
  Plus Gallery, Denver, CO
- SFAI Now
  Red Ink Studios, San Francisco, CA
2006
- The Moving Picture Show
  Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Immediate Future, Murphy and Codogan Fellowship Award Show
  San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
- Big Deal
  Soma Arts Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Convergence
  Tollhouse Art Center, Kirkcudbright, Scotland
- Upgrade: Photographic Works, Paintings and Films
  Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
- Obsession
  Centre International d'Art Contemporain, Pont-Aven, France
2005
- Distillations
  Institut Franco-Americain, Rennes, France
2004
- Cultural Salvage
  Centre International d'Art Contemporain, Pont-Aven, France
- Pedestrian
  Bronx River Art Center Gallery, Bronx, NY
2003
- Is, Was, Will Be
  The Maria Bismark Foundation Gallery, Paris, France
2001
- 25th Annual Emerging Artists Exhibition
  The National Arts Club Gallery, New York, NY
- Thesis Exhibition
  Barnard College, New York, NY
2000
- Identity
  Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY

Grants and Awards

2017
- Kala Parents Residency
  Award Residency to create large scale works and original book.
2008
- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Artist Residency, December, 2008.
- Djerassi Artist Residency.
  Awarded artist residency to create the film The Mansion of Happiness, April-May, 2008.
2007
- Ella King Torrey Award for Innovation and Excellence in the Arts.
  Honored as best graduating MFA student in the 2007 San Francisco Art Institute class.
2007
- James Broughton Award.
  Awarded film grant from the San Francisco Art Institute for creativity in filmmaking.
- Headlands Center for the Arts MFA Studio Award.
  Awarded one-year studio residency at Headlands Center for the Arts for pursuit of artistic work begun in graduate school.
- San Francisco Art Institute MFA Film Fellowship.
  Selected as finest MFA film applicant and awarded full tuition scholarship to attend the San Francisco Art Institute graduate film program, September, 2005-May, 2007.
2006
- Murphy & Codogan Fellowship for Film
  San Francisco Arts Commission, August, 2006
- MacDowell Colony Residency.
  Awarded artist residency to create the film Five Cents a Peek, June-July, 2006.
- Film Arts Foundation Personal Works Grant.
  Awarded grant towards completion of the documentary film Mimita, August, 2006
2005
- Pont-Aven Artist in Residency Program.
  Awarded artist residency to create the film Souffle sur le Miroir, May 1-August 31, 2005
2001
- Bernard Hans Hessel Memorial Award for The Cartographer’s Memory
  National Arts Club 25th Annual Art Show
- Time Grant for Outstanding Visual Art from Barnard College
2000
- Exceptional Artist Scholarship to attend Rhode Island School of Design Summer Program in France
1999
- Patricia Layman Bazelon Scholarship from The International Center of Photography

Publications

2017
- Making the Cut
  The World’s Best Collage Artists, Volume One, Crooks Press, Melbourne, Australia, March, 2017
- An Evening with Baphomet
  Super Classy Publishing, January 2017
- Mekanik Copulaire Volume 9
  Strasburg, France, January 2017
2016
- The Knight and the Cart
  Super Classy Publishing, September 2016
- Emic/Etic
  Super Classy Publishing, May 2016
2015
- Catamaran Literary Reader
  Issue 8, Winter Issue, 2015
2015
- Women Arts Quarterly Journal
  Volume 2, Issue 8, Winter, 2015
2014
- Kolaj Magazine
  Issue 10, Featured Artist, Fall-Winter, 2014
2012
- Women Arts Quarterly Journal
  Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 2012
2011
- Women Arts Quarterly Journal
  Volume 1, Winter 2011
2009
- The Mansion of Happiness Studies #1-3
  Bird Dog, Volume 10. Seattle, WA. Winter, 2009.
2007
- The Touch
  The Journal of Short Film, Volume 6. Columbus, OH. January, 2007. http://www.thejsf.org/
2006
- Convergence Exhibition Catalogue
  Tollhouse Art Center, Kirkcudbright, Scotland. June, 2006

Collections

The Center for Fine Art Photography
Fort Collins, CO

Education

2007
- MFA, Film/Photography: With Honors
  San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
2001
- BA, Art History and Visual Arts: Cum Laude
  Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY.