Issy Wood
ValueEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Issy Wood’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Recent auction highlight
$179,542
Title not captured (catalogue header only) (lot 35)
View the sale and market context →Gallery relationships
VeneKlasen, Carlos/Ishikawa, Michael Werner Gallery (former), JTT (former)
Explore representation →Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
Read the institutional research →
Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Recent auction highlight
A result from Egon’s tracked auction sales; historical auction records are researched separately. Price including buyer’s premium.
Auction highlights
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Work | Result | Venue and date |
|---|---|---|
| Study for big appetite | $14,080 | Jun 2026 |
| Judith/Holofernes/1000S | $20,599 premium-inclusive | Oct 2025 |
| Untitled (what i want) | $40,925 premium-inclusive | Oct 2025 |
2 further auction entries on record for Issy Wood — inside Egon.
Pricing
By work type
Small numbered self-portraits and study-scale works transact roughly $14k-$45k; mid-size oil-on-velvet works and mid-format canvases roughly $60k-$120k; large ambitious canvases are the $150k+ material and hold the record prices. Works on velvet and painted furniture/instruments are a signature but thinly traded category.
Temporal context
2021 2022 boom
Secondary peaks of roughly US$500,000-590,000 for major early canvases ('Study for Goes Both Ways', Sotheby's May 2022, $504,000; 'Chalet', Phillips London 2022, $587,484 per MutualArt), with lots routinely clearing multiples of estimate.
2025 2026 current
Internal 2025+ sample of 10 sold lots averages $71,316 within a $14,080-$179,542 range; MutualArt reports a trailing-12-month painting average of US$59,348. The current top of the secondary range is roughly 30% of the 2022 peak.
- 2023 2024 correction
- Large canvases continued to appear in Christie's and Sotheby's sales but individual prices were not retrieved; aggregate averages fell sharply.
Prints and multiples
No significant print/multiple market identified; her editions activity is chiefly artist books (SML PTNGS, Queen Baby) published by Carlos/Ishikawa rather than priced print editions. All price data above refers to unique works.
Primary market current
New paintings in VeneKlasen's solo booth at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar (Feb 2026) were priced $35,000-$190,000 per ARTnews' fair preview - the clearest current primary band, spanning small to large formats.
Gallery controlled pricing
Primary pricing is gallery-controlled and rarely disclosed outside fair previews. Contact VeneKlasen (New York/London) or Carlos/Ishikawa (London) for current primary pricing and waitlist status.
Liquidity
Sell through
85% across 13 settled lots in the internal database; askART reports 92% lots sold lifetime. Clearing is healthy; the weakness is price level against estimate, not failure to sell.
Annual volume
Roughly 10-20 lots a year across the major houses in the current cycle (19 lots logged in the internal 2025+ window, 6 more catalogued as upcoming); lifetime aggregator counts of 45-78 lots.
Depth assessment
Adequate depth for an orderly exit in small and mid-format work; large canvases are estimate-sensitive, as the Sep 2025 Christie's lot settling at $179,542 against a $192,780-$321,300 estimate illustrates.
Collector base
Named patrons
The NPG's three self-portraits are credited 'Purchased with support from Mr. and Mrs. Julian and Ada Cheng, 2023' - the only named individual patrons documented in a primary museum record.
Demand drivers
Cross-over cultural visibility (music career, Vanity Fair cover portrait of Charli XCX, large online following) widens the buyer pool beyond traditional painting collectors.
Known patterns
Published collection lists point to private foundations and collector museums as a core constituency: The Perimeter (London), Zabludowicz Collection (London), Rachofsky Collection and Green Family Art Foundation (Dallas), Karpidas Collection (Dallas), Kagge Collection (Oslo, shown at Kode Bergen), Sharjah Art Foundation, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Fondation Beyeler, Al Thani Collection.
Auction history
Overview
Auction presence begins in 2021 and expands rapidly through the 2021-2022 ultra-contemporary boom, then corrects sharply. Aggregators list roughly 45-78 lifetime lots (Art.Salon 45; MutualArt 78) - a genuine but still shallow secondary market for a career that began exhibiting in 2014.
Conflict note
MutualArt's 'Chalet' figure and Artsy's contemporaneous $504,000 record cannot both be the lifetime record; both are reported with their provenance rather than reconciled. Neither is merged with internal-database figures.
Bought in and unsold
No complete buy-in record retrieved. The internal database implies roughly 2 unsold of 13 settled lots (85% sell-through); askART reports a 92% lots-sold rate. No externally verified list of specific bought-in lots was located - absence of retrieved buy-ins is not evidence that none occurred.
Externally evidenced lots pre 2025
Invaluable's archive lists, among others: 'The plaid / car interior' (oil on velvet, Christie's, Nov 2024); 'Untitled (Blue Planet)' (Sotheby's, Oct 2024); 'When You I Feel' (165 x 285 cm, Sotheby's, May 2024); 'The Consultation' (228 x 204.5 cm, Christie's, Dec 2023); 'Miami / from shame to grace' (oil on velvet, Christie's, Nov 2023); 'Serves You Right 5' and 'Fanta Car Interior' (Christie's). Individual hammer prices for these lots were not retrieved.
Egon database figures separate provenance
Note
Internal EGON auction database, coverage 2025 onward only (Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams). NOT merged with web-sourced prices; the externally reported 2022 record is far above anything in this window.
- Recent sample
- 10 sold lots, $14,080-$179,542, average $71,316 (price bases mixed/unknown)
- Upcoming lots
- 6
- Cached lot count
- 19
- Cached sold count
- 11
Highest price in db
$179,542 premium-inclusive, title not captured (catalogue header only), Christie's, Sep 2025, against a $192,780-$321,300 hammer-basis estimate - settled below the low estimate on a like-for-like reading, though price and estimate bases differ
- Canonical sell through
- 85% across 13 settled lots (100% of catalogued lots at least 90 days old have settled)
Market position
Peers
Benchmarked against Anna Weyant, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Jade Fadojutimi, Flora Yukhnovich and Caroline Walker. Wood's institutional record (a national-collection purchase, multiple foreign museum solos) is stronger than most of the 2021-22 speculative cohort, while her secondary price level has retraced further from peak than the strongest names in that group.
- Segment
- Ultra-contemporary (artists born after 1975) figurative painting - the segment that repriced hardest after 2022.
Differentiator
Her documented refusal of mega-gallery representation has kept supply controlled and demand concentrated at two dealers - supportive of primary pricing, limiting for secondary breadth.
Investment outlook
Risks
Ultra-contemporary segment remains soft; a career first shown in 2017 has no cycle-tested price history; supply is controlled by two dealers so a representation change or a flipping wave could move price quickly; a large part of the collection record is gallery-attributed rather than independently verified.
Current view
Prices have already repriced roughly 60-70% below the 2022 peak and are now clearing consistently rather than failing - a healthier base than the boom. The NPG Artist Focus display (opens 9 Oct 2026) and the VeneKlasen alliance are documented, credible near-term catalysts, but their commercial effect is unproven and should not be assumed to restore 2022 levels. A record price is not a floor.
Entry guidance
The defensible entry today is small-to-mid format work in the $20k-$90k band - ideally a numbered self-portrait (the body of work being institutionalised by the NPG) or a strong oil-on-velvet object/interior. Large canvases at $150k+ require conviction: least liquid, widest estimate risk.
Conditional scenarios
ANALYST SCENARIO, not observed behaviour: if the NPG display is well received and followed by further verified national-museum acquisitions, the top of the secondary band could re-test roughly $250k-$400k over several years. Absent that follow-through, the current $15k-$180k band is the reasonable expectation. No annual appreciation rate is forecast - the available series is too short and too cycle-distorted to support one.
Institutional presence
Research updated
Upcoming
- Issy Wood: Self-Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 9 Oct 2026 - 28 Feb 2027
- Fish, Fish, Duck, Kistefos Museum, Norway, through 11 Oct 2026
- Sensations, Fondation Beyeler (2026 group)
- Six lots catalogued as upcoming in the internal auction database
Exhibitions
Biennials
No Venice Biennale or comparable biennial/triennial selection located. Her Venice appearance was a 2019 group show at Ca' Pesaro, not the Biennale.
Selected group
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Year | Title | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sensations | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen |
| 2026 | A fleur de peau (Under the skin) | MO.CO. Panacee, Montpellier |
| 2026 | Fields of Vision: Dallas Collects | Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas |
| 2025 | Louisiana's New Works | Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek |
| 2025 | Seven Heavenly Senses | Al Thani Collection, Hotel de la Marine, Paris |
| 2025 | Ensemble | The Perimeter, London |
| 2024 | Eccentric: Aesthetics of Freedom | Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich |
| 2024 | Post Scriptum. A museum forgotten by heart | MACRO, Rome |
| 2024 | Maskerade, Makeup & Ensor | MoMu, Antwerp |
| 2024 | In Focus | Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
| 2024 | Composition for the Left Hand: Works from the Kagge Collection | Kode Museum, Bergen |
| 2023 | Reopening collection display | National Portrait Gallery, London |
| 2022 | Fire Figure Fantasy | ICA Miami |
| 2022 | Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined | LACMA, Los Angeles |
| 2021 | Mixing It Up: Painting Today | Hayward Gallery, London |
| 2019 | Paint, also known as Blood | Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw |
| 2019 | Arte contemporanea in Gran Bretagna | Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice |
| 2018 | Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired by Her Writings | Tate St Ives |
| 2017 | Dreamers Awake | White Cube, London |
Solo and two person
Issy Wood: Self-Portraits
- Note
- Inaugural presentation of the NPG's new Artist Focus programme; twelve self-portraits; free admission. A focused display, NOT a retrospective.
- Year
- 2026
- Dates
- 9 October 2026 - 28 February 2027
- Venue
- National Portrait Gallery, London (Weston Wing, Room 32)
Fish, Fish, Duck
- Note
- First major presentation in the Nordic region
- Year
- 2026
- Dates
- on view through 11 October 2026
- Venue
- Nybruket Gallery, Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway
Solo booth of new paintings
- Year
- 2026
- Dates
- February 2026
- Venue
- VeneKlasen at Art Basel Qatar (inaugural edition)
Magic Bullet
- Note
- Sponsored by LEAP Art Foundation; non-collecting kunsthalle
- Year
- 2025
- Dates
- 11 September 2025 - 31 January 2026
- Venue
- Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin
Wet Reckless
- Year
- 2025
- Dates
- through 17 May 2025
- Venue
- Michael Werner Gallery, Los Angeles
View 16 more records
What I Eat In A Day
- Year
- 2024
- Venue
- TANK, Shanghai
A Lover's Discourse: Issy Wood in the company of Fernando Botero
- Note
- Two-person exhibition
- Year
- 2023
- Venue
- Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
Study For No
- Year
- 2023
- Dates
- 18 October 2023 - 7 January 2024
- Venue
- Lafayette Anticipations, Paris
I Like To Watch
- Note
- First Korean solo, timed to Frieze Seoul
- Year
- 2023
- Venue
- Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul
Furni
- Year
- 2023
- Dates
- 12 May - 7 July 2023
- Venue
- Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Time Sensitive
- Year
- 2022
- Venue
- Michael Werner Gallery, New York
Trilemma
- Year
- 2021
- Dates
- 7 October - 20 November 2021
- Venue
- Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Good Clean Fun
- Year
- 2020
- Venue
- X Museum, Beijing
daughterproof
- Year
- 2020
- Venue
- JTT, New York
All The Rage
- Note
- Largest solo to date at the time; occupied four gallery spaces
- Year
- 2019
- Venue
- Goldsmiths CCA, London
I came as soon as I heard (with Margaret Wharton)
- Year
- 2019
- Venue
- JTT, New York
Okey Dokey III: Fenster (with Eva Lofdahl)
- Year
- 2019
- Venue
- Galerie Kadel Willborn, Dusseldorf
Joan
- Year
- 2018
- Venue
- D.E.L.F, Vienna
When You I Feel
- Year
- 2017
- Dates
- 16 November - 22 December 2017
- Venue
- Carlos/Ishikawa, London
Issy Wood & Darja Bajagic
- Year
- 2017
- Venue
- Carlos/Ishikawa at Independent Regence, Brussels
Rosetta Stone
- Year
- 2015
- Venue
- Triumph, Moscow
Museum tier
Tier 1 - Tate (UK), The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum appear in gallery-published and institutional-press collection listings, but are attributed rather than independently verified here. The strongest INDEPENDENTLY DOCUMENTED holding is the National Portrait Gallery, London (three accessioned works, Tier 2 national institution).
Publications
Artist books
- SML PTNGS Vol 1 (2018), Vol 2 (2021), Vol 3 (2023), Carlos/Ishikawa - records of daily small-format oil paintings
- All The Rage (2019) - blog writing 2017-2019
- But Who's Counting (2021) - blog writing 2019-2020
- Queen Baby (2022) - blog writing 2021-2022
- When You I Feel (2017) - blog writing 2007-2017
Collaborations
- Poster work 'The down payment' (2021) accompanying Ottessa Moshfegh's 'My New Novel', Picture Books | Gagosian, 2021
- 'Charli 2' (2025), Vanity Fair November 2025 art-issue cover
- Scholarly monograph
- No catalogue raisonne or academic monograph identified - expected at this career length, but a real limit on institutional depth.
Exhibition catalogues
- Lafayette Anticipations catalogue for 'Study For No' (2023)
- Goldsmiths CCA, 'All The Rage' (2019)
Other museums
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Status | Credit line | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| reported (gallery CV; Lafayette press kit) | credit line unknown | Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE |
| reported (gallery CV) | credit line unknown | Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil |
| reported (Lafayette press kit); private collection, not a public museum | credit line unknown | Zabludowicz Collection, London |
| reported (gallery CV); private collection/exhibition space | credit line unknown | The Perimeter, London |
| reported (gallery CV); private collection | credit line unknown | The Rachofsky Collection, Dallas |
Tier 1 museums
Tate, UK
Status
reported - listed in Carlos/Ishikawa's published collections list and in the Lafayette Anticipations 2023 press kit; Tate accession record not retrieved
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 1
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Status
reported - listed in Carlos/Ishikawa's published collections list; corroborated by a name-matched hit in the supplied public-museum data (at least one record, a floor rather than a holdings count). Met object record not directly retrieved.
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 1
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
- Status
- reported - listed in Carlos/Ishikawa's published collections list; Whitney accession record not retrieved
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 1
Tier 2 museums
National Portrait Gallery, London
Works
- NPG 7157, Issy Wood ('Self portrait 2'), oil on linen, 2021, 400 x 300 mm
- NPG 7158, Issy Wood ('Self portrait 6'), oil on linen, 2021, 400 x 300 mm
- NPG 7159, Issy Wood ('Self portrait 25'), oil on linen, 2022, 400 x 300 mm
- Status
- documented via NPG collection records
- Collection
- Primary Collection
- Credit line
- Purchased with support from Mr. and Mrs. Julian and Ada Cheng, 2023
- Institution tier
- 2
- Acquisition route
- PURCHASE - museum-initiated acquisition supported by named patrons; not a gift
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
- Status
- reported (gallery CV; Aspen Art Museum and Lafayette Anticipations listings)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Dallas Museum of Art
- Status
- reported (gallery CV; Aspen and Lafayette listings)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
- Status
- reported (gallery CV)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
- Status
- reported (Aspen and Lafayette listings)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
View 5 more records
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
- Status
- reported (gallery CV and NPG press listing); also included in 'Louisiana's New Works', 2025
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen
- Status
- reported (gallery CV and NPG press listing); included in 'Sensations', 2026
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
- Status
- reported (gallery CV; Aspen and NPG listings)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
- Status
- reported (gallery CV; Aspen and NPG listings)
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
- Status
- reported - ICA Miami's website hosts a page for browsing Wood's work in its permanent collection
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Tier 3 museums
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Status | Credit line | Institution | Institution tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| reported (gallery CV; Lafayette press kit) | credit line unknown | RISD Museum, Providence | 3 |
| reported (gallery CV; Lafayette press kit) | credit line unknown | Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing | 3 |
| reported (gallery CV; Lafayette press kit) | credit line unknown | Start Museum, Shanghai | 3 |
| reported (Lafayette Anticipations 2023 press kit) | credit line unknown | X Museum, Beijing | 3 |
| reported (gallery CV) | credit line unknown | TANK, Shanghai | 3 |
- Tier framework
- named-institutions-v1
Awards and recognition
No major prize, fellowship or honorary position was located in the sources checked (scope: gallery CV, institutional press, art-press coverage). Her principal recognitions are curatorial and editorial rather than prize-based: selection as the inaugural Artist Focus artist at the National Portrait Gallery (2026) and the Vanity Fair art-issue cover commission (November 2025). The Schinkel Pavillon solo was sponsored by the LEAP Art Foundation.
Museum collections summary
One independently documented museum holding with a verbatim purchase credit line: the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 7157-7159, purchased 2023). A further ~20 institutional and foundation holdings are published by the artist's gallery and repeated in institutional press (Lafayette Anticipations press kit 2023, Aspen Art Museum, NPG press release 2026), including Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney; these remain attributed rather than independently confirmed, and no credit lines for them were retrieved. Unknown credit routes are not assumed to be gifts.
Career & Biography
Research updated
Identity
- Gender
- Female
- Full name
- Issy Wood
- Birth year
- 1993
- Birthplace
- Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Nationality
- American-born, British-based (NPG and ARTnews describe her as American-born British / British American)
Other practices
Also an active musician (independently released album 'Accidental American', 2024) and a writer whose diaristic blog has been compiled into artist books by Carlos/Ishikawa
- Current location
- London, United Kingdom
Education
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | BA Fine Art & History of Art | Goldsmiths, University of London |
| 2018 | MA / postgraduate programme | Royal Academy Schools, London |
- Coverage gaps
- No Getty ULAN record located; biography assembled from gallery CV, institutional press and art-press profiles.
Career timeline
- Year
- 2014-2016
Event
Early two-person and group shows in London (PLAZAPLAZA; Greatorex with Gina Fischli; Evelyn Yard; DRAF) and 'Rosetta Stone', Triumph, Moscow (2015)
- Year
- 2017
- Event
- Discovered via Tumblr by gallerist Vanessa Carlos; first solo show 'When You I Feel' at Carlos/Ishikawa, London, while still at the RA Schools
- Year
- 2018
- Event
- Graduates RA Schools; solo 'Joan' at D.E.L.F, Vienna; included in 'Virginia Woolf' at Tate St Ives
- Year
- 2019
Event
First major institutional solo 'All The Rage', Goldsmiths CCA, London; signs with JTT, New York; included in 'Paint, also known as Blood', Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
- Year
- 2020
- Event
- Solos 'Good Clean Fun' (X Museum, Beijing) and 'daughterproof' (JTT, New York); begins ongoing numbered self-portrait series
View 6 more records
- Year
- 2021
Event
'Trilemma' at Carlos/Ishikawa; included in 'Mixing It Up: Painting Today', Hayward Gallery; poster work 'The down payment' accompanies Ottessa Moshfegh's 'My New Novel' (Picture Books | Gagosian)
- Year
- 2022
Event
Solo 'Time Sensitive', Michael Werner Gallery, New York; auction market peaks; publicly declines Larry Gagosian's representation and exits Mark Ronson's Zelig label (New York Times feature)
- Year
- 2023
Event
Institutional year: 'Study For No' (Lafayette Anticipations, Paris), 'I Like To Watch' (Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul), 'A Lover's Discourse' with Fernando Botero (Aspen Art Museum), 'Furni' (Carlos/Ishikawa); National Portrait Gallery, London purchases three self-portraits
- Year
- 2024
Event
Solo 'What I Eat In A Day', TANK Shanghai; releases album 'Accidental American'; museum group shows at Pinakothek der Moderne, MACRO Rome, MoMu Antwerp, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Kode Bergen
- Year
- 2025
Event
'Wet Reckless', Michael Werner Gallery, Los Angeles; 'Magic Bullet', Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (11 Sep 2025 - 31 Jan 2026); paints Charli XCX for the cover of Vanity Fair's November 2025 art issue
- Year
- 2026
Event
Follows Gordon VeneKlasen out of Michael Werner to the new VeneKlasen gallery (New York/London); subject of VeneKlasen's first fair booth, a solo presentation at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar (Feb 2026); 'Fish, Fish, Duck' at Kistefos Museum, Norway (through 11 Oct 2026); selected as inaugural artist of the NPG's Artist Focus programme ('Issy Wood: Self-Portraits', 9 Oct 2026 - 28 Feb 2027)
Studio practice
Works in London in oil on linen, canvas and - distinctively - stretched velvet, as well as on found furniture, garments and musical instruments. Sources imagery from her phone and from auction catalogues; maintains a daily small-format painting discipline documented in the serial artist books 'SML PTNGS' (vols 1-3); maintains a long-running blog compiled into four books.
Artistic context
Influences
Auction-catalogue photography and secondary-market commodity imagery; objects inherited from her maternal grandmother; Old Master and Northern European conventions (dark grounds, animal and still-life portraiture); smartphone/Tumblr-era vernacular; a self-described 'medieval millennial' sensibility. Her Artforum 'Top Ten' cites literary sources including Joy Williams.
Contemporaries
Commercially grouped with Anna Weyant, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Caroline Walker, Jade Fadojutimi and Flora Yukhnovich; critically positioned closer to Luc Tuymans-adjacent desaturated figuration and the Carlos/Ishikawa circle.
- Critical framing
- New York critic Barry Schwabsky's term 'perverse realism' is cited by Schinkel Pavillon to characterise her painting.
Personal and career decisions
Publicly refused mega-gallery courtship (Gagosian) and an artist-management/record deal with Mark Ronson's Zelig label, telling The New York Times in 2022 she did not want an older man holding money over her; has spoken about getting sober in 2016. These choices produced a deliberately narrow, tightly controlled primary market and a self-released music career.
Artistic Profile
Research updated
Style
Figurative oil painting in a deliberately anachronistic register: thinly glazed, matte, grainy surfaces over dark or greyed grounds, with tight cropping that severs subjects from context. Imagery is drawn from phone screenshots and auction-catalogue photography, so the paintings carry the flattening, incidental framing and slight blur of circulated digital images while being executed with pre-modern patience.
Evolution
- Phase
- 2014-2017 student and Tumblr period
- Characteristics
- Small, wry, object-focused paintings circulated online; first Carlos/Ishikawa solo; imagery already sourced from catalogues and inherited objects
- Phase
- 2018-2020 institutional breakthrough
- Characteristics
- Goldsmiths CCA survey; expansion onto velvet; car interiors, phones and luxury goods dominate; palette darkens and consolidates
- Phase
- 2021-2023 market peak and self-portraiture
Characteristics
Numbered self-portrait series begins; large ambitious canvases ('The Consultation'); text-overlaid figures; record auction prices; museum solos in Paris, Seoul and Aspen
- Phase
- 2024-2026 consolidation
Characteristics
Shanghai, Berlin and Norway museum presentations; self-portraiture foregrounded and institutionalised by the NPG; expansion into painted objects and instruments; music and writing fully integrated into public identity
Influences
Old Master and Northern European conventions (dark-ground animal and still-life portraiture); auction-catalogue photography as both source and subject; Luc Tuymans-adjacent desaturation; Pop-derived commodity iconography; internet vernacular imagery; literary and musical sources cited in her Artforum Top Ten.
Visual language
Extreme close cropping; centralised frontal compositions; lost edges dissolving forms into near-black or olive-grey fields; limited chromatic accents (coral, cerulean, bone-white) puncturing an otherwise achromatic field; occasional stencilled or dry-brushed catalogue text running across the picture plane; velvet nap used as an optical ground that swallows light.
Signature series
- Numbered self-portraits (begun 2020; at least 71 by 2025; three in the NPG)
- SML PTNGS daily small paintings (2018- )
- Car interiors and 'plaid'/velvet object paintings
- Dental and medical examination paintings
- Animal and pet portraits on dark grounds
Themes and subjects
- Commodities and conceptions of value - jewellery, silverware, car interiors, luxury goods, inherited objects
- Self-portraiture and the regulation of self-disclosure
- Femininity, care, desire, intimacy and their discomforts
- The body under examination - dental and medical procedures, mouths, teeth
- Domestic animals given the dignity of formal portraiture
- Inheritance and generational objects (works derived from her maternal grandmother's possessions)
- Screen-mediated attention and the non-sequitur logic of social media
Movements and periods
- Contemporary (2010-present)
- Post-internet / screen-age figuration
- Surrealist-adjacent contemporary figuration ('perverse realism', per Barry Schwabsky as cited by Schinkel Pavillon)
- The 2020s ultra-contemporary painting cohort, though positioned critically against its speculative tendencies
Techniques and mediums
- Oil on linen and canvas
- Oil on stretched velvet - a signature support
- Painting on furniture, musical instruments and discarded garments
- Glazing, scumbling, sfumato; wet-blended transitions; restrained impasto for highlights
- Daily small-format painting practice recorded in the SML PTNGS books
- Drawing (included in Gladstone Gallery's 'Drawing 2020')
Fingerprint verification
Confirmed
- Contemporary representational oil painting with Old Master dark-ground staging - supported by institutional texts describing 'old-masterly' painting oscillating between realism and surrealism, and by her animal and object portraits.
- Desaturated, low-key, earth-toned palette; soft and lost edges; figure-ground compression; easel-scale intimacy - consistent with the 400 x 300 mm self-portraits in the NPG collection and with catalogue descriptions.
- Themes of identity, intimacy, the body and the gaze - confirmed by NPG curatorial text on self-scrutiny and regulated disclosure and by ArtTactic's summary of femininity, care and desire.
- Uncanny/intimate mood - matches the recurring 'comfort in the uncomfortable' framing and Sotheby's 'nightmarish' characterisation.
- Glazing, scumbling and sfumato consistent with her thin, grainy, photo-derived surfaces.
Extensions and disagreements
- MATERIAL GAP: the fingerprint lists only 'oil' and 'painting'. Her most distinctive support is OIL ON VELVET (e.g. 'Miami / from shame to grace', 'The plaid / car interior', 'Fanta Car Interior'), plus painting on furniture, discarded garments and musical instruments. Velvet is a signature, not a variant.
- SUBJECT GAP: the exemplars emphasise animal portraiture and a text-overlaid nude. The wider corpus is dominated by gleaming car interiors, mobile phones, jewellery and silverware, leather jackets, and dental/medical examinations - sourced from phone photos and auction catalogues.
- SERIES GAP: the numbered SELF-PORTRAIT series begun in 2020 (at least 71 works by 2025; three accessioned by the NPG) is the body of work now being institutionalised, and is underweighted in the fingerprint.
- LOW COHERENCE EXPLAINED: the 0.42 coherence reflects genuine breadth across supports (linen, velvet, objects) and scales (miniature daily paintings to 2m+ canvases), not attribution unreliability. Compare any work under analysis to the nearest sub-mode: (a) small numbered self-portrait, (b) oil-on-velvet object/interior, (c) large dark-ground canvas, (d) text-overlaid figure.
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
Summary
The serious press treats Wood as one of the most distinctive painters of her generation rather than as a speculative-market phenomenon, and she is unusual in having converted early market heat into museum programming. Critical framing emphasises unease inside the familiar, a 'medieval millennial' collision of Old Master technique with smartphone-era commodity imagery, and the ambivalence of her self-representation.
Notable framings
- Schinkel Pavillon attributes the phrase 'perverse realism' to New York critic Barry Schwabsky to describe her oscillation between realism and surrealism.
- Goldsmiths CCA framed her paintings as finding comfort in the uncomfortable and as anachronistic 'imposters' - a framing widely reused.
- Sotheby's artist page describes a 'nightmarish aesthetic' alluding to Surrealist traditions.
- The NPG emphasises her distinctive cropping and framing, which regulate how much of herself is disclosed.
Scholarly attention
Limited independent scholarship. The substantial texts are exhibition catalogues and institutional publications (Lafayette Anticipations, Goldsmiths CCA) plus her own artist books; no academic monograph or catalogue raisonne located. Her critical literature is journalistic and curatorial rather than art-historical - normal at this career length, and the main constraint on her institutional score.
Reviews and features
Issy Wood Met Power Players in Art and Music. She Went Her Own Way.
- Note
- Career-defining feature on her refusal of Gagosian and of Mark Ronson's Zelig label
- Year
- 2022
- Author
- Joe Coscarelli
- Publication
- The New York Times
- Note
- Reported the Gagosian/Ronson rejection and Vanessa Carlos's 2017 Tumblr discovery
- Year
- 2022
- Publication
- ARTnews
An hour with... Issy Wood
- Year
- 2026
- Author
- Kathryn Bromwich
- Publication
- The Observer
Crop Crop
- Note
- Review of 'Magic Bullet' at Schinkel Pavillon
- Year
- 2025
- Author
- Andreas Schlaegel
- Publication
- Kunstkritikk
Blue Velvet Crush
- Year
- 2022
- Author
- Kat Herriman
- Publication
- Cultured Magazine
View 6 more records
Issy Wood: From Life
- Year
- 2019
- Author
- Margaret Kross
- Publication
- Cura.
- Note
- Review of 'When You I Feel' at Carlos/Ishikawa
- Year
- 2019
- Author
- Robert Assaye
- Publication
- The White Review
- Note
- In conversation with curator Sarah McCrory
- Year
- 2019
- Publication
- Luncheon
- Note
- 'Issy Wood shares her Top Ten' - artist-authored feature, an editorial platform rather than a review of her work
- Publication
- Artforum
- Note
- Recurring coverage including her first Korean show during Frieze Seoul and fair-highlight selections
- Publication
- frieze
Note
'Charli 2' (2025), commissioned portrait of Charli XCX for the cover of Vanity Fair's November 2025 art issue - the magazine's first art issue in 20 years. A major visibility event and editorial recognition; NOT a museum acquisition and not counted toward institutional validation.
- Year
- 2025
- Publication
- Vanity Fair / Hyperallergic / Artsy
Publications and media
Recent news verification
The supplied news feed's provisional labels were checked against the quoted evidence and corrected: (1) 'Retrospective' for the NPG Artist Focus announcement is WRONG - it is a twelve-work focused display of self-portraits inaugurating a new free contemporary programme. (2) 'Museum Acquisition' dated September 2026 for the NPG's three works is MISLEADING - the NPG's own records date the purchase to 2023; the 2026 coverage restates existing holdings rather than reporting a new acquisition. (3) 'Retrospective' for the Kistefos 'Fish, Fish, Duck' mention is also wrong - it is a solo museum exhibition and her first major Nordic presentation. (4) Artsy's assertion that the NPG is the only national institution to hold a Wood self-portrait was neither confirmed nor refuted by this research and is recorded as unresolved.
Cross disciplinary profile
Music (album 'Accidental American', 2024; sold-out New York live show at Public Records), writing (blog compiled into four books) and a large online following give her a media footprint well beyond the trade - broadening demand but exposing reputation to cultural-cycle risk.
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
Fair presence
Recent
VeneKlasen presented a solo booth of new Wood paintings at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar (February 2026) - the gallery's first fair under its own name, priced $35,000-$190,000.
- History
- Carlos/Ishikawa showed her two-person at Independent Regence, Brussels (2017); Michael Werner included her in fair programmes 2022-2025.
Representation
Galleries
VeneKlasen
- Tier
- 2
- Since
- 2026
- Status
- current
- Location
- New York and London
- Institution tier
- 2
Carlos/Ishikawa
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- 2017
- Status
- current
- Location
- London (Unit 4, 88 Mile End Road, E1)
- Institution tier
- 2
Michael Werner Gallery
- Tier
- 2
- Since
- 2022
- Status
- former
- Location
- New York, London, Los Angeles, Athens, Berlin
- Institution tier
- 2
JTT
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- 2019
- Status
- former
- Location
- New York
- Institution tier
- 3
Representation note
Two dealers currently control the primary market - VeneKlasen (New York/London) and Carlos/Ishikawa (London); the NPG's 2026 materials credit works to 'Carlos/Ishikawa, London and VeneKlasen, New York and London'. VeneKlasen was founded in 2026 by Gordon VeneKlasen, co-owner of Michael Werner Gallery from 1990 to 2025, and Wood moved with him after the December 2025 split; the Werner Los Angeles space has since wound down. Carlos/Ishikawa has been her gallery since Vanessa Carlos found her paintings on Tumblr in 2017 and has given her three solo shows plus her artist books. Wood publicly declined representation by Gagosian around 2022, which keeps distribution narrow and primary supply tightly managed.
Geographic reach
London (home market, two galleries), New York, Los Angeles (via Werner, now ended), Berlin, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Doha, Norway/Bergen, Dallas and Aspen - a multi-continental exhibition and collecting footprint.
Representation history
Carlos/Ishikawa, London
- Note
- Discovering and continuing gallery
- Period
- 2017-present
JTT, New York
- Note
- Signed 2019; solo 'daughterproof' 2020; no longer listed
- Period
- 2019-c.2022
Michael Werner Gallery
- Note
- Solos in New York (2022) and Los Angeles (2025); ended with the Werner/VeneKlasen split
- Period
- 2022-2025
VeneKlasen, New York and London
Note
Named on the founding roster alongside Hurvin Anderson, Enrico David, Sanya Kantarovsky, Florian Krewer, Andy Robert, Peter Saul and Raphaela Simon, plus the Broodthaers, Byars, Kirkeby and Van Vliet estates
- Period
- 2026-present
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Issy Wood: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Evidence & qualifications
These notes preserve the sources, status and qualifications recorded in the research.
New Issy Wood paintings at VeneKlasen's solo booth for the inaugural Art Basel Qatar were priced between $35,000 and $190,000; it was Gordon VeneKlasen's first fair under the VeneKlasen name, with the gallery officially opening 1 February.
Market · Reported · Event: 2026-02 (fair preview) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
ARTnews fair preview; asking prices as reported by the publication, not confirmed transactions.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/art-basel-qatar-preview-galleries-1234771706/Auction record reported as US$587,484 for 'Chalet', Phillips London, 2022; trailing-12-month painting average US$59,348.
Market · Reported · Event: 2022 (record); rolling 12 months to 2026-09 (average) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Aggregator summary with currency conversion; underlying Phillips lot page not retrieved. Ranking conflicts with Artsy's contemporaneous report of a $504,000 record at Sotheby's in May 2022; both recorded separately.
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Issy-Wood/22F9C5166A1AA05AWood set an auction record with 'Study for Goes Both Ways' (2021), which sold for $504,000, several times the $200,000 high estimate at Sotheby's.
Market · Reported · Event: 2022-05 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Artsy sale round-up; 'record' status was as of May 2022 and would be superseded if the MutualArt 'Chalet' figure is accurate.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-sold-new-yorks-spring-2022-auctionsHighest price in the internal EGON database is $179,542 premium-inclusive (Christie's, Sep 2025), materially below the externally reported lifetime record.
Market · Documented · Event: 2025-09
Internal database figure, coverage limited to 2025 onward; not an external source and not the artist's lifetime record. Lot title not captured in the record, so the specific work is unidentified.
Wood is represented by Michael Werner Gallery and Carlos/Ishikawa (as stated in a March 2025 Phillips lot essay), a position superseded during 2026.
Market · Contradicted · Event: 2025-03 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Accurate at the time of writing but superseded: Gordon VeneKlasen left Michael Werner in December 2025 and Wood is listed on the VeneKlasen roster from 2026. Auction-house artist essays lag representation changes.
https://www.phillips.com/detail/issy-wood/216299The National Portrait Gallery holds three Issy Wood self-portraits - NPG 7157 ('Self portrait 2', 2021), NPG 7158 ('Self portrait 6', 2021) and NPG 7159 ('Self portrait 25', 2022), each oil on linen, 400 x 300 mm - credited 'Purchased with support from Mr. and Mrs. Julian and Ada Cheng, 2023', Primary Collection.
Institutional · Documented · Event: 2023 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Credit line quoted verbatim from the NPG record for NPG 7157 and identically published on the records for NPG 7158 (mw306016) and NPG 7159 (mw306020). A museum purchase supported by named patrons - curatorial initiation, not a donor gift. The acquisition dates to 2023 and is NOT a new 2026 acquisition, despite September 2026 coverage that could be read that way.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw306014/Issy-Wood-Self-portrait-2ARTnews' 7 September 2026 report captions the NPG holdings as including 'Self Portrait 24 (2022)'; the NPG's own collection records list Self portrait 2, Self portrait 6 and Self portrait 25.
Institutional · Contradicted · Event: 2026-09-07 (article) vs 2023 (accession) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Specific conflict between a press image caption and the museum's primary catalogue record. The museum record is the stronger evidence; the caption may refer to a loan or to an illustrated work rather than an accessioned one.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw306020/Issy-Wood-Self-portrait-25Wood is the inaugural artist of the NPG's new Artist Focus programme; 'Issy Wood: Self-Portraits' runs 9 October 2026 - 28 February 2027 in the Weston Wing with free admission, bringing together twelve self-portraits from a series begun in 2020.
Institutional · Documented · Event: 2026-10-09 to 2027-02-28 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Confirmed on the NPG's own What's On listing and its press release; corroborated by ARTnews (7 Sep 2026), Artsy (8 Sep 2026) and FAD Magazine (30 Jul 2026). This is a twelve-work focused display, not a retrospective - the supplied news feed's 'Retrospective' label is incorrect on the evidence of its own quoted text.
https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/Wood's work is held in the permanent collections of Dallas Museum of Art, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Hammer Museum, High Museum, ICA Boston, ICA Miami, NPG London, RISD Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sifang Art Museum, Start Museum, Tate, X Museum and Zabludowicz Collection.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2023-07 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Institutional press kit reproducing a gallery-supplied collections list; no accession records or credit lines retrieved for any of these except the NPG. The artist's gallery additionally lists the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, MFA Houston, Louisiana Museum, Fondation Beyeler, Inhotim, The Perimeter, Rachofsky Collection and TANK Shanghai.
https://www.lafayetteanticipations.com/sites/default/files/document/pr-_la_issy_wood_19_july_2023.pdfICA Miami maintains a page for browsing Issy Wood works in its permanent collection.
Institutional · Reported · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Museum website artist page indicates permanent-collection holdings; specific object records, accession numbers and credit lines were not retrieved from that page.
https://icamiami.org/artist/issy-wood/'Fish, Fish, Duck' at the Kistefos Museum, Norway is Wood's first major presentation in the Nordic region, on view through 11 October 2026.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2026 (through 11 October 2026) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Artsy editorial; corroborated by the artist's gallery CV listing 'Fish, Fish, Duck', Nybruket Gallery, Kistefos Museum, 2026. An exhibition, not an acquisition.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-issy-wood-selected-first-artist-national-portrait-gallerys-new-focus-programMajor institutional solos in more than one country: Lafayette Anticipations (Paris, 2023-24), Ilmin Museum of Art (Seoul, 2023), Goldsmiths CCA (London, 2019), with group presentations at ICA Miami (2022), Hayward Gallery (2021) and LACMA (2021).
Institutional · Documented · Event: 2019-2023 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Aspen Art Museum exhibition page (museum-published biography). LACMA and Hayward appearances were GROUP exhibitions, not solos, and ICA Miami's 'Fire Figure Fantasy' was a group show.
https://aspenartmuseum.org/exhibition/ald-issy-wood/Wood publicly discussed rejecting Larry Gagosian and Mark Ronson's Zelig label; Vanessa Carlos of Carlos/Ishikawa began exhibiting her after seeing paintings posted on Tumblr in 2017, and Wood signed with JTT in 2019.
Critical · Reported · Event: 2022-11 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
ARTnews reporting on a New York Times interview; the quotations and characterisation originate with the NYT feature by Joe Coscarelli.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/issy-wood-gagosian-ronson-rejection-why-1234639133/Wood painted 'Charli 2' (2025), commissioned by Vanity Fair as the cover of its November 2025 art issue.
Critical · Documented · Event: 2025-11 (issue) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Editorial commission and visibility event; it is not institutional validation and does not bear on museum standing or the institutional score.
https://hyperallergic.com/1050182/new-painting-of-charli-xcx-graces-vanity-fair-cover/Schinkel Pavillon attributes the description of Wood's work as 'perverse realism' to New York critic Barry Schwabsky.
Critical · Reported · Event: 2025-09-11 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Quoted at second hand in exhibition press text; the original Schwabsky writing was not retrieved.
https://www.artatberlin.com/en/news-berlin-art-week-2025-issy-wood-magic-bullet-schinkel-pavillon-11-09-2025-31-01-2026-2/Artsy states the NPG is the only national institution to hold a Wood self-portrait.
Critical · Unresolved · Event: 2026-09-08 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Press assertion; holdings at Tate, the Met and the Whitney were not retrieved at object level, so neither confirmation nor refutation is possible from the sources checked.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-issy-wood-selected-first-artist-national-portrait-gallerys-new-focus-program
Research bibliography · 38 sources
Sources recorded for this artist’s research. This bibliography does not assign every source to an individual claim.
- Issy Wood | Art for Sale, Results & Biography | Sotheby's
- Issy Wood Biography & Life Story | askART
- Goldsmiths CCA - Issy Wood, All The Rage
- Issy Wood | Artnet
- Issy Wood: NextGen Artist Monitor - May 2024 | ArtTactic
- Issy Wood - Carlos/Ishikawa (artist page, CV, collections list)
- Issy Wood - New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design, Hong Kong, March 2025 | Phillips
- On the Edge | Berlin Art Week (Issy Wood at Schinkel Pavillon)
- Berlin Art Week 2025: Issy Wood - Magic Bullet, Schinkel Pavillon | ART at Berlin
- Issy Wood at Carlos/Ishikawa, 'Furni' | Emergent Magazine
- VeneKlasen | Art Basel gallery profile
- Gordon VeneKlasen Launches Namesake Gallery's First Show Following Michael Werner Split | Ocula
- VeneKlasen Gallery Appoints New Partners, Werner Los Angeles Space Shutters | ARTnews
- VeneKlasen Gallery | Artists, Art for Sale, and Contact Info | Artsy
- What Sold at New York's Spring 2022 Auctions | Artsy
- Issy Wood | 78 Artworks at Auction | MutualArt
- Issy Wood Sold at Auction Prices | Invaluable
- Issy Wood | 45 Artworks and Similar Artists | Art.Salon
- A Lover's Discourse: Issy Wood & Fernando Botero | Aspen Art Museum
- Issy Wood: Study for No - press kit | Lafayette Anticipations
- Issy Wood | Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
- NPG 7157; Issy Wood ('Self portrait 2') | National Portrait Gallery
- NPG 7158; Issy Wood ('Self portrait 6') | National Portrait Gallery
- NPG 7159; Issy Wood ('Self portrait 25') | National Portrait Gallery
- First ever dedicated presentation of Issy Wood's self-portraits launches Artist Focus | NPG press release
- What's On | National Portrait Gallery
- Reframing Women and Self-portraiture | National Portrait Gallery
- Issy Wood Picked as National Portrait Gallery's Inaugural Artist for Contemporary Program | ARTnews
- Issy Wood selected as first artist in National Portrait Gallery's new Focus program | Artsy
- National Portrait Gallery launches Artist Focus with Issy Wood exhibition | FAD Magazine
- Musician/Artist Issy Wood Opens Up About Rejecting Gagosian | ARTnews
- Issy Wood shares her Top Ten | Artforum
- Issy Wood | Frieze
- Art Basel Qatar Gets Ready to Open, Featuring Solo Presentations... | ARTnews
- VeneKlasen Gallery at Art Basel Qatar 2026 | Artsy
- Issy Wood paints Charli XCX for Vanity Fair cover | Artsy
- New Painting of Charli XCX Graces Vanity Fair Cover | Hyperallergic
- Frieze New York Diary | Plaster Magazine
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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