A new exhibition at the Gagosian showcases tennis court paintings by Jonas Wood that depict specific matches held at a prominent Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), or Olympic tournament.

Tennis Court Paintings

The paintings, which were produced in 2025 or 2026, each depict a specific match using an abstract style. This exhibition, which opened on March 12th, is the gallery’s tenth exhibition of Wood’s work and the first in Los Angeles.

The pieces show a point of view from behind the baseline, with each court depicted in a foreshortened perspective. The players and officials are omitted from the perspective, with spectators indicated by patterns of repeated brushstrokes.

This exhibition is a continuation of a series Wood began in 2011, engaging with his themes of sports, abstraction, and Pop art. The standardized dimensions and varying color schemes of tennis courts allow the series to function as a form of serial abstraction.

Wood interprets the appearance of each court, whether it’s grass, clay, or hard court, using a palette of saturated colors. Paintings of nets, umpires’ chairs, banner advertisements, courtside signage, and other features that make stadiums stand out from one another.

On-screen graphics of player names and running scores are also included in some of the paintings, representing moments in real televised matches. One work titled Nintendo 3 (2025) is also based on a video game that the artist plays with his children.

Each court is positioned as a horizontal landscape image on a vertically oriented canvas. Some of the spaces surrounding the courts are painted as solid black blocks, showcasing the experience of viewing a televised match in a dark room.

In other works with collaged compositions, Wood brings together tennis courts and a series of images derived from domestic and studio views, other series of his paintings, and appropriated art.