The MassArt Graduate Programs and MFA Fine Arts Low-Residency welcome Dorian Wood as a speaker of the MFA Summer 2026 Lecture Series in the Design and Media Center Lecture Hall on Thursday, July 16 at 1:00pm.

Dorian Wood (b. 1975, pronouns: she/her/they/them) is an anti-disciplinary artist based in the U.S. Her intent of “infecting” spaces and ideologies with her creative practice is born from a desire to challenge traditions and systems that have contributed to the marginalization of people. Wood has performed at institutions that include The Broad, Los Angeles, CA; REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA; Museo Nacional Del Prado, Madrid, Spain; the City Hall of Madrid, Spain; Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris, Mexico City, Mexico; and Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, and at festivals that include Pacific Standard Time, Los Angeles, CA; Fusebox Festival, Austin, TX; Festival Cruilla, Barcelona, Spain; WorldPride Madrid, Spain; Moers Festival, Germany; and Cully Jazz Festival, Switzerland.

From 2019 to 2020, Wood completed several successful international tours with their chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas, XAVELA LUX AETERNA. In 2022, Wood debuted their 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. In 2023, Wood premiered the 12-hour composition/installation Canto de Todes at REDCAT in Los Angeles. In 2024, Wood toured her piano-and-voice interpretation of Sinéad O'Connor's album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, honoring the late artist on the anniversary of her passing. 

As a visual artist, Wood has created illustrations and video installations that have been exhibited in galleries around the world, including Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles; La Carboneria, Huesca, Spain; Fierman Gallery, New York; and the Queer Biennial, Los Angeles. They have also directed several short films, among them The angel (2023), Low's Disappearing video (2021), American Savagery (2021), FAF (2021), The World’s Gone Beautiful (2020), PAISA (2019, co-directed with Graham Kolbeins), O (2014) and La Cara Infinita (2013).

Wood is a recipient of an FCA Grants For Artists Award, a Los Angeles County Performing Arts Recovery Grant, a City of Los Angeles Individual Master Artist Project Grant, a NALAC Fund for the Arts Award, a Creative Capital Award and an Art Matters Foundation grant, and a past artist-in-residence at MacDowell Residency, Loghaven Artist Residency, Building Bridges Art Exchange, Etopia, Centro de Arte y Tecnologia, under the FUGA program, and MASS Gallery.

Wood has released over a dozen recordings, most recently the albums Canto de Todes (New Amsterdam Records, 2026), You are clearly in perversion (with Thor Harris) (Astral Editions, 2023) and Excesiva (Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2023).

Born in Los Angeles, Wood is currently based in Boston.

Questions? Contact gradprogram@massart.edu.

This event is free and open to public.

Image: Laura Pardo, Dorian Wood