Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her artistic practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people.
Wood has performed at institutions worldwide that include The Broad, Los Angeles, CA (2018); Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid, Spain (2019); Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris, Mexico City, Mexico (2019); Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany (2017); and Moods, Zurich, Switzerland (2019).
From 2019 to 2020, Wood completed several successful international tours with her chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas, XAVELA LUX AETERNA. In 2022, Wood debuted her tribute to the singer Lhasa De Sela, entitled LHASA, at the Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro in Madrid, in collaboration with singer Carmina Escobar and composer Adrián Cortés. That same year, Wood presented MARES OCULTOS, a multimedia chamber music project exploring the nature of male heterosexuality, at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.
Wood is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award (2020) and the Art Matters Foundation grant (2020); the MacDowell Fellowship (2022); Loghaven Artist Residency, Knoxville, TN (2022); Building Bridges Art Exchange, Santa Monica, CA (2020); Etopia, Centro de Arte y Tecnologia, under the FUGA program, Zaragoza, Spain (2019); and MASS Gallery, Austin, TX (2017).
Wood has released more than a dozen recordings, among them the albums You are clearly in perversion (with Thor Harris on Astral Editions, 2023); Invasiva (Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2022); ARDOR (Independent, 2020); REACTOR (Independent, 2020); XALÁ (Atonal Industries, 2017); Down, The Dirty Roof (Atonal Industries, 2013); Rattle Rattle (Atonal Industries, 2013); Brutus (Independent, 2010); and BOLKA (Independent, 2007).
In 2023, Wood premiered the 12-hour composition/installation Canto de Todes at REDCAT in Los Angeles, a project that Wood developed during her residency at MacDowell. Inspired by a lyric of the late Chilean singer and songwriter Violeta Parra, Canto de Todes emphasizes the urgency of folk music as a vessel for social change, arriving as a long-durational spatial experience, divided into three movements.
Portrait by Gonzo Bojorquez
