Angela Woods
Urban Stories, Angela Woods’ recent solo exhibition running through October 17 at Alpine Art Gallery in Salt Lake City, gives a glimpse of the hidden moods that can arise while driving the highways of the American West. An avid road tripper, Woods’ ambition is to transform mundane moments into meaningful and enduring memories. Her work hints at the isolation that can exist in urban congestion and the expanse of the high plains. The titles suggest a narrative framework onto which viewers can project their own unique stories.
Building layers from thin to thick paint, Woods creates textured scenes, often using a palette knife to drag and smear paint toward a more abstract expression of car lights and reflections, rendering shapes with lost and hard edges. “I often paint urban scenes as they remind me to enjoy being in the moment, to stop and take it all in,” she says.
Woods’ other passion is animals. Her work depicting wildlife is on display in an exhibition at Raven’s Heart Gallery, in Kanab, Utah. “I am fascinated by the process of painting, and the way it can transport the viewer to a time and place,” she explains. “We are surrounded by beauty even in the ordinary. Whether it’s streets, buildings or animals, painting is always a journey to see the world differently.”
Woods resides and works in her studio in Salt Lake City and is a member of Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists and Women Artists of the West. In addition to being represented by Alpine Art Gallery and Raven’s Heart Gallery, her work can be found at LaFave Gallery in Springdale, Utah.