After nearly forty years of artistic silence driven by censorship and curtailment, Queer artist Jon C. Woods re-emerges with a bold retrospective exhibition that charts his colourful journey through isolation, belonging, queerness, and self-expression.
“Coming Out of the Art Womb” is an exhibition that embodies radical vulnerability and unapologetic honesty. It represents the culmination of decades of creation, introspection, and self-exploration within what Woods refers to as the “safety” of the art womb. In this exhibition, he invites us into a space of profound honesty, openly exploring his relationship with his queerness, family, the art world, social norms, and ultimately, what it means to be himself.
This retrospective showcases a lifetime of creativity influenced by non-conforming artists, including Gilbert & George, who were contemporaries of Woods’ art teachers. Like them, Woods blurs the lines between art and life, using his own fluid identity and relationships as fundamental elements of his work, making them inseparable from the art itself.
The body of work showcases Woods’ queer and non-normative identity while also reflecting on his heterosexual relationships and family life. As he explains, the exhibition “reveals a life lived across various categories, yet never reducible to a single label. It represents a true expression of self, desire, and human connection.” The exhibition marks a coming out, not only from the confines of the art womb but also from the heteronormative identity that he has been associated with for decades.
His paintings feature visceral scenes and intimate portraits, drawing from both real and imagined encounters, such as a train conductor, once a gay lover, and a dancing jester on a moonlit beach.
Colourful symbolic compositions burst with expressive strokes, featuring animals, iconography, phallic references, and the uneasy tension between the viewer and the viewed.
Fish push beyond the frame, in primary colours, while a stripper’s red-lit figure competes with the unsettling eyes of her spectators. Unflinching depictions of sex in cramped bedsits sit in deliberate counterpoint to his children at Disneyland. Desire sits alongside family life. Homoeroticism alongside heteronormativity. Voyeur next to viewed.
Sharing these works publicly allows the artist to explore various aspects of self-expression while facing the unpredictable reactions of viewers. Through this exhibition, Woods not only showcases his art but also highlights the intricate balance between self-expression and public perception. This experience feels especially intense after years of pressure from what he calls “the Cornish Art Mafia” to create more decorative, less provocative seascapes and clichés.
Jon C Woods’ children organised the exhibition as a heartfelt tribute to his work, recognising him as both an artist and a complex individual, while expressing frustration that his contributions have remained unseen until now.
Woods holds an Honours degree in Fine Art and a Diploma in Art Psychotherapy. With 30 years of experience as an Art Psychotherapist in the NHS, he has dedicated his life to using art as a means to reflect on humanity, meaning, and identity. Primarily working with acrylic on canvas, he explores themes such as belonging, faith, sexuality, relationships, and how art and therapy can uncover the self.
Coming Out of the Art Womb by Jon C. Woods is on 9 – 14 September 2025. Opening Hours: 12pm–7pm daily (closing at 3.30pm on the 14th). At Espacio Gallery, 159 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 7DG, United Kingdom.
Instagram: @jontwoods
