Born in Tasmania in 1940, Tony Woods developed an interest in the visual at an early age.  Initially focusing on landscape watercolours, he soon became interested in figurative work and  studied at the Hobart Technical College. He exhibited widely in Tasmania and held his first one-man exhibition in Adelaide in 1966. In 1968 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship alongside Brett Whiteley and bioth spent some years living and working in New York City where Woods developed an interest in abstraction, inspired by the hard urban environment around him. Woods' works are represented in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and he has staged many solo exhibitions across Australia since 1962. He was represented by  the prominent Kim Bonython Galleries and his work included in important group exhibitions including John Kaldor Art Project 2, held at the Art Gallery of NSW and the National Gallery of Victoria in 1971. Film, super 8 and video have also formed part of the practice of Tony Woods with work being seen at Experimenta and the Melbourne International Film festival, Today he lives and works in Fitzroy, Melbourne and his distinctive work can be found in significant Australian art collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Queen Victoria Museum, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Artbank, the University of Tasmania, Australian National University, Flinders University.