Jana Wood (Ngati Raukawa ki te tonga/Ngati Pakeha), is a semi-abstract painter of landscape. Her works are characterised by an expressive use of colour and intimate handling of paint. She operates in a liminal space between abstraction and figuration.

"Fluidity and flow is obvious in these works. The Awa (Waikato River), the Tupuna Awa, (a living Ancestor) is always present in my studio, as well as the Moana (the Tasman sea).  My studio and home faces the Awa to the North-East and the Moana to the North-West.  As I work,  I can feel the Mauri of the land and the pull of the Awa meeting Moana, turbulent and sometimes unsettling, yet at other times a gentle lull, but always I feel movement.  The Moana is a constant presence, I can hear it most days, it gets closer and closer each year, as the sea rises and the beach erodes.  We are right on the edge here, I can feel it, it’s elemental, the energy that permeates from the land, the air, the sea and sky are my inspiration. Yet, despite all of this wildness, there is always the man-made organisation of space present; landscape as assemblage, organised and representative of the culture-nature divide." Jana Wood

Wood has a Post Graduate Diploma from Elam School of Fine Arts Auckland, and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from AUT Auckland. Her work is held in private collections both in NZ and overseas, as well as the James Wallace Arts Trust collection. She has been selected finalist in many awards over the years, most recently two works selected for the 2022 National  Contemporary Art Award at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga O Waikato.  Recent exhibitions include Three Painters at McLeavey Gallery, A'Float at Arthaus Gallery,  Iteration 14 MotherMother Lot 23 and Lurky Spaces at Artfull’s Arcadia, Auckland.

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