Ashley Wood
Ashley Wood is an award-winning Australian multi-media artist, illustrator, art director, and internationally renown toy designer. Ashley Wood has been pushing the boundaries of comic books and collectible figures for over 30 years. Getting his start at the UK’s infamous serial 2000AD working on the iconic Judge Dredd series, eventually jumping to the Big Two publishers - Marvel and DC Comics doing both cover and interior work. His avant-garde approach caught the eye of Todd McFarlane and Image Comics, which led to his breakout work co-creating and illustrating the Hellspawn series.
In 2008 Wood co-founded 3A, a designer toy company based in Hong Kong, where he designed, art directed, and produced hundreds of original vinyl toys, action figures, fashion dolls, and couture streetwear, in-addition to producing high-end collectible figures for some of the world’s most well known brands. During this era he curated the Venture art exhibitions taking place in Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, and San Diego. Each exhibition blended fine art, pop art, and toys and provided an outlet for established and up-and-coming artists to be seen by new audiences and expose the toy scene to something they’ve never seen before.
In 2019 Ashley Wood founded his own entertainment and collectible brand, Underverse, where he continues his legacy of producing high-end designer figures from his original series. He has also recently returned to Image Comics, creating new comics, republishing past work, and co-curating new independent series by other writers and artists around the world.
In the midst of all of this – Wood still finds the time to produce personal work for himself and for gallery shows across the globe.
For a behind the scenes look at Ashley's practice, have a read of our interview with him here.
Take a look at Ashley's 2023 solo show The Triumph of Bedroom Based Space Exploration.