ANDREW TAYLOR Conopeum in Exile
10 March 2010 - 10 April 2010
New works by Andrew Taylor
Opening Reception Thursday 11th March 6:00-9:00pm
Artist will be in attendance.
Born in Melbourne, and based in Los Angeles, Andrew Taylor creates subtle, engaging and powerful paintings which draw upon the natural world. Each canvas is testament to the artist's enduring interest in recording the rapidly moving world around him in the most still manner possible. Though the artist works in response to intensity of contemporary society, Taylor's work is neither nihilistic nor pessimistic. Rather, the canvasses celebrate what is wonderful and possible in the twenty-first century - the movement of materials and species across continents.
The subject of the work is drawn from a canopy (from Latin conopeum) of overhead foliage and are created with oil paint, glazes, impasto and natural materials such as crushed cerium, copper, titanium, zinc and silver reclaimed from the mines of remote Australia, Taylor's homeland. Taylor takes two transplanted species as contemplation: the giant Eucalyptus Citriodora and the Cherry Blossom and his enigmatic and ancient materials make for canvasses that seemingly exist outside of any time or place. They are a phenomenon, transcending the decorative and the realities of the context in which they were made. In a world saturated with images and hyperventilating with speed, Taylor finds room to pause and celebrate.
Andrew Taylor has shown widely throughout Australia, where he is represented by the Tim Olsen Gallery in Sydney. His work is several public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Shepparton Art Gallery, Art Bank Australia, the Telstra Collection at the Australian National University in Canberra and in several high profile private collections in Australia, USA and France.
)
