Prelude to AIR:
Issy Wood and Johanna Fateman

Painter and musician Issy Wood joins writer, musician, and CULTURED co-chief art critic Johanna Fateman for a conversation that traverses art, music, and criticism. This event is one of five Summer Series lectures presented by Anderson Ranch Arts Center featuring prominent contemporary artists, critics, and cultural figures.

Issy Wood is a British-American artist and musician known for her richly hypnotic and often surreal figurative paintings. Wood’s paintings of people and everyday objects—antique furniture, luxury goods, car interiors—are loaded with symbols that reflect the ways in which personal identity is shaped by social pressures, history, and ideas of objectification, desire, and value. Wood frequently juxtaposes classical techniques with contemporary themes, resulting in images that convey both intimacy and estrangement. Her work has recently been exhibited in solo shows at TANK Shanghai (2024); Aspen Art Museum (2023), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2023); and Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2023). In parallel with her painting practice, Wood has released two EPs under Mark Ronson’s Zelig Records, followed by the self-produced albums My Body Your Choice (2022) and Accidental American (2024), both highly celebrated for their confessional vulnerability and minimalist production. 

Johanna Fateman is an American writer, musician, and cultural critic. Fateman’s earliest writing took the form of feminist zines that circulated through the riot grrrl movement and underground punk networks in the 1990s. She currently serves as the co-chief art critic for CULTURED magazine and the commissioning editor of The Critics’ Table, the magazine’s new platform for art criticism. Fateman was a regular contributor to 4Columns, The New Yorker, where she wrote for the weekly Goings on About Town section, and Artforum, where she was a contributing editor. She has also contributed essays to museum catalogues and monographs for artists such as Charles Atlas, Judith Bernstein, Judy Chicago, Donald Judd, and Hilary Pecis. Fateman is a founding member of Le Tigre, the influential early noughties band known for their danceable electro-punk music.

As a prelude to the official AIR Festival, this program is presented in partnership with Anderson Ranch as part of the organization’s Summer Series.

Image: Issy Wood, Self portrait 27, 2022. © Issy Wood 2023, courtesy of Carlos Ishikawa, London, and Michael Werner, New York. Photo: Damian Griffiths.