BIO

Kelly B. Woods (b. 1966, Los Angeles) is a Los Angeles-based painter working in geometric abstraction. Her current work returns to the hard-edge, grid-based compositions for which she is known, now rendered with atmospheric watercolor washes, softer edges, and intentional irregularities — the same vocabulary, in a quieter register.

Woods’ earlier body of work — geometric abstractions incorporating glitter, color theory, and formal elements of the Light and Space movement — earned her widespread placement in institutional and hospitality settings, including law firms in London, New York, and Century City, The Four Seasons Las Vegas, and The Pendry Hotel / Merois Restaurant on Sunset Strip. The works activated viewers through perceptual effects: dynamic color shifts, after-images, and surfaces that changed as the body moved in front of them

In the mid-1980s, Woods declined an acceptance to Otis College of Art and Design to continue working as a studio assistant to Billy Al Bengston and Charles Christopher Hill in Venice, and to Mary Corse in Topanga, during one of Los Angeles’ most vital periods for art. She has developed her own practice concurrently ever since.

Since 2009, Woods has exhibited widely in Los Angeles and beyond, including solo exhibitions at TAJ Art Gallery and Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair, a two-person show at Modfellow’s in Nashville, and group exhibitions at Edward Cella Gallery and Over the Influence. Her work was included in the Southern California / Baja Biennial at the San Diego Art Institute in 2016. She has been featured in LAWeekly, Art and Cake, Peripheral Vision Press, and FULL BLEDE.STATEMENT

STATEMENT

My previous body of work — hard-edge geometric abstractions with elements of Light and Space, color theory, and a lot of glitter — came to a halt in the summer of 2023. I had pushed those works as far as I could and needed a change. For two years I made whatever I wanted, working primarily in oil. In July 2025, preparing to move studios, I cut a large portion of those paintings off their stretcher bars and threw them away.

I’ve since returned to geometric abstraction, but from a different angle — looser, more open, with a softer hand and new materials, informed by the freedom of the last two years. The structure is still there. The glitter surfaces only in quiet traces now. Each box fills in like a calendar — a passing of days, a passing of time. Working in watercolor, I can take away as easily as I add, and I do at will — until cold wax medium is applied, halting the process. No more adding, no more erasing.

It’s the same investigation; different approach, different results.