DECODING VISUAL EXCESS
Nathan Taylor
DECODING VISUAL EXCESS Nathan Taylor
MOONAH ARTS CENTRE 24 NOV - 17 DEC 2016
MOONAHARTSCENTRE.ORG.AU NATHANTAYLOR.COM.AU 23-27 ALBERT ROAD MOONAH TUESDAY TO FRIDAY 10AM - 5PM SATURDAY 11AM - 3PM
DECODING VISUAL EXCESS In a world of visual excess, this slow journey through paint reassesses the consumable objects that comprise our contemporary cultural makeup. Abandoned rubbish, half eaten junk food and curious food constructions all quietly consider notions of beauty, excess and personal identity. Artist Nathan Taylor uses hyper-realistic painting to explore and decode a visually saturated world. Viewers will find themselves lost in the exquisitely rendered surface of a crushed beer can, an abandoned doughnut, or a heavenly confection. Taylor’s work is characterised by an ongoing, obsessive fascination for realism and paint. The artworks in this exhibition examine how painting can be used to explore ongoing social anxieties of environment, sustainability, waste, consumption and health, including an evaluation on the persuasive role of the photograph in an increasingly digital world. The works in Decoding Visual Excess explore the seduction of illusion within reality through their hyper-realistic style. By re-contextualising familiar aspects of the everyday, Taylor invites us to contemplate ideas of unattainable perfection, artifice and fantasy. In the vast sea of visual information that we encounter every day, these paintings offer to help restore our faith in the real.
Since his first major solo exhibition in 2003, Taylor has exhibited both nationally and internationally, participating in multiple facets of the visual arts scene including curated group exhibitions, art prizes, artist talks as well as being awarded notable grants, private commissions and scholarships. Alongside winning the Eutick Still Life Award in 2012, Nathan has been a finalist in numerous national prizes curated by regional galleries, including Geelong Gallery, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Gippsland Art Gallery and the Perth Centre for Photography. Decoding Visual Excess surveys Taylor’s practice of the past three years, bringing together the largest number of his works exhibited at once to date. Works included have been sourced from private collections, the artist’s collection and Taylor’s current studio research. As part of the exhibition Taylor will be presenting a floor talk about his work at 2pm on Saturday 26 November. He will also be running a children’s art workshop (ages 4 – 8) on Saturday 3 December. This catalogue includes a selection of works presented in chronological order. Taylor is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania.
FOOD AS ENTERTAINMENT Within the immersive domain of online platforms and visual culture, food media is a key player. The domination of social media platforms such as Instagram, Pintrest and Twitter, has helped democratise the photograph making it the perfect tool for capturing and sharing the aspirational consumption habits of an increasingly discerning culture (Rousseau 2012). We are now bombarded on a daily basis with idealised images of food, with a range of gastronomic experiences now mediated through the photograph (Wadhera & Capaldi-Phillips 2014). Advertising, cookbooks, magazines and foodie websites, all rely on photography to build context and capture viewer engagement. This can be seen for example within the clean, crisp and dreamy pages of Donna Hay magazine or a Jamie Oliver cook book, with images of baked comfort food liberally drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Behind the surface of these visual enticements are the meticulously tuned processes of design and styling. Despite the extensive popular engagement, these images rarely portray what the populace is actually eating (Barthes 1972). Like a majority of popular imagery, food imaging carries a commercial agenda that focuses on feeding an insatiable appetite for exotic luxury-based consumption, openly celebrating a culture entrenched in ritualistic indulgence (Goodman & Cohen 2004). These images typically resemble our aspirations towards food rather that what what we actually consume, the thin line between food fiction and reality becoming increasingly indistinguishable (Baudrillard 1983). For example, Donna Hay magazine constantly plays with our romantic fantasies through the use of nostalgia (Boym 2001). In her 2015 magazine oxymoronically titled The Perfect Christmas, Hay’s tuned representations show angelic oozing chocolate cakes and glistening chocolate dipped apples encrusted with crushed pecans, all sparklingly
displayed against a shadowy and chilly Christmas night backdrop. The image sequence is thematically focused to create an engaging narrative and intensify aspects of fantasy and desire. In this context, the food has been surpassed by the feelings of pleasure that the image generates, through the unobtainable promise of an ideal Christmas. Colloquially dubbed as food porn, this excessive style of image is becoming more commonplace, helping us to develop a multi-speed relationship with food (Bourdeau 2010). We now have food for routine, food for enjoyment, food for entertainment and food for vicarious pleasure. More than ever, food is less about individual ingredients, but instead a comprehensive package. Food is now imaged as a complete meal, a processed product or a full cultural experience. Suffice to say, the value of food representation is close to taking over from food itself. Common visual devices used in contemporary food imaging include colour, light, compositional orchestration and props. For example, as seen in the recent publication Winter on the Farm by Mathew Evans, images are heartily garnished with open fires, hay bails and dew soaked trees and although carefully staged, all these props give the images a believable rustic sincerity. Through similar triggers, contemporary food images have become highly persuasive, using subtle semiotic devices and tapping primal human instincts towards food, such as ripeness, diversity and quantity (Adams 2008; Wadhera & Capaldi-Phillips 2014). However, visual tropes and narratives driving these images have rapidly evolved, becoming increasingly exaggerated, competing for viewer engagement (Holt-Fortin 2012). As a result of this rapid social adoption of amplified food imagery in popular media, our expectations towards food have slowly begun to shift. Images that target our fantasies have become more common and the pornifcation of food has
become normalised (Bourdeau 2010). However, this visual obsession with food is certainly not a recent phenomenon, its humble beginnings can be traced back throughout art history. Food has been a key visual signifier, used symbolically by artists to help navigate the ambiguous moral terrain between prosperity and culture (Bryson 1990; De Jongh 1993). Most prominently seen within the Dutch still life paintings of the 17th Century, artists composed ornate arrangements of cursory pleasures and comestible luxuries to celebrate social and economic strength, whilst simultaneously questioning cultural identity (Bendiner 2004). Food items might include a bunch of plump ripened grapes, freshly shucked oysters, poached lobster or a glass of wine. These items became symbols of Dutch trade superiority, but simultaneously revealed a worrying trend towards transitory`pleasures over more humble pursuits (Bryson 1990). Dutch still life painting becomes a key historical marker in representing the first major shift in food’s cultural role, beginning an irreversible transition away from necessity towards indulgence. The demonstration of wealth by showing a preference for exotic foods is inextricably associated with a sense of increased social status and sophistication (Frow 2003). These were commissioned as aspirational paintings and despite initial appearances are not about food at all, but rather an attempt to reinforce personal power (Wansink, Mukund & Weislogel 2016). Most important within these works is the use of metaphors to question the rapidly changing cultural relationship towards food. The use of food metaphors also
reveals how abstract ideas could be explored through realistic representation (De Jongh 1993). For example, lobster becomes a signifier for the prosperity of earth’s natural recourses, but simultaneously cautions against the corruption of gluttony. Another recognisable symbol is a peeled lemon, which denotes casual excess, a clear warning of how life can be both bitter and sweet. The realism in these paintings is part of their seductive strength, every detail tirelessly rendered by the artist’s hand. In this sense the Dutch still life works are very honest and their recognisable subject matter makes them that much more plausible. However, every compositional element in these paintings is a subjective decision made by the artist. In this sense each painting functions on two levels. Firstly, through the beauty of the painted surface, almost distracting in its exquisite sensitivity and secondly, on a more subliminal level, the artist manipulating our understanding of the subject and its symbolic cultural role. The visual splendour of the image acts like a mask, ultimately distracting the viewer from questioning whether the depiction of food is a plausible representation of reality. Contemporary food images function in almost an identical way, helping to transform food into a cultural icon of symbolic importance. Most noticeable is an ongoing preference with food’s visual aesthetics, an obsession with exotic foods and the feeling of empowerment derived from its representation. In today’s consumer society we continue to reward ourselves through indulgence, competing in ways to demonstrate social standing and cultural sophistication (Frow 2003) and just like the Dutch paintings, contemporary food images are at the popular culture forefront of visualising this identity (McCracken 1988). However, the principal difference between historical still life and popular food imagery is an undiscriminating reach, achieved by an increase in volume and ease
of access. Moreover, driven by a commercial agenda, popular food imaging is now freely distributed for mass visual consumption (Thompson 2012). Facilitating this distribution and popularity is the photograph. Food photography has the unique power to help reinforce our own ideas about food by leaving just enough room to be personally interpreted. Without any specific information aluding to time, place or ownership, a conceptual vacuum is created, which can then be filled by personal projection of the viewer (Sontag 1977). Our subjective interests being targeted in this way, especially with food, can become highly addictive, feeding off feelings of self-empowerment generated by validating personal desires. The idea that photography has a universal language, but speaks personally to the viewer suggests the agenda of popular food imaging, similar to the artistic motivations of the Dutch artists, is pushed and masked simultaneously (Berger 2001). The seductive qualities of illusion both painted by the Dutch artists and captured by photography is almost identical in its influence. The relationship between photography and food becomes indicative of a twisted truth. Instead of recording fact, it shows our desires, deficiencies and needs (Berger 1972). But unlike the Dutch artists who showed awareness of this changing relationship to food, popular food imagery appears to be caught up in the obsessive worlds of both commercialisation and social media, demonstrating little awareness of its potential impact on our understanding and expectations of food (Bourdeau 2010; Rousseau 2012). Works in this exhibition aim to question what happens when popular food images turn full circle and become painted once again. Part of my personal motivation to critique food through paint, which was done so successfully by the Dutch artists, is
to contribute to the discussion around how personal creative investment can help rationalise a rapidly changing world (Doty 2001; Foster 1993). However, instead of looking directly at food as cultural symbolism, I’m looking at food that has already passed through the lens of popular culture. My subject has become the image itself (Dyckes 1975). As well as offering an objective platform to help reinterpret the familiarity of food imaging, my paintings also aim to indulge more subjective interests, which then become hidden within the layers of hyper-realistic figuration. These include the ongoing pursuit of an unattainable perfection, indulging in the seduction of illusion and the desire for control (Foster 1993). A majority of food imaging shares these concerns and like my paintings, are driven by the desire to fabricate a sense of security. Having a sense of control over contemporary existence, even if it’s tied to a process of consuming illusion, allows a space for personal significance to survive within visual excess (Baudrillard 1990). Through my search for ways to negotiate the growing saturation of visual information, the ritual of paint has become a mechanism to decode and manage visual complexity (Chase 1975). The methodologies of my work centre on rationalising a visually saturated world in an attempt to re-establish a sense of control. Rather than being manipulated by the image, paint helps me invert this power and begin to manipulate the image instead. Food and art will continue to be at the forefront of the ongoing exploration of the human condition. Through my painterly interpretation of popular food imaging, I hope to rekindle questions around how we visually interpret food and are
influenced by its precise aesthetic makeup. A diligent commitment to painted realism has become symbolic of my awareness towards foods ongoing role in articulating identity and exploring morality. Nevertheless, a perverse fascination for luxury and the unfamiliar makes food the perfect vice for a self-indulgent culture, which continues to grow obsessed with copious amounts of superfluous, unsustainable and exotic consumption. In this context, food as pure entertainment is quickly becoming reality (O’Neill 2003). Maybe the most dangerous aspect of food imaging is its capacity to function in full consciousness of the viewer, not attempting to mimic reality, but merely question its banality (Baudrillard 1990). I can’t pretend to exist outside of this enticing visual experience and just like the Dutch artists, I too am caught in a moral paradox of questioning my own slow seduction into the indulgent worlds of both food and paint.
NATHAN TAYLOR 2016 Taylor is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania.
REFERENCES Adams, M 2008, ‘How food companies fool consumers with food coloring ingredients made from petrochemicals’, viewed 24 November 2016, [http://www.naturalnews.com/022870_artificial_colors_ food.html] Barthes, R 1972, ‘Ornamental Cookery’, in Mythologies, J. Cape, London, p. 158 p. Baudrillard, J 1983, ‘The Ecstasy of Communication’, in H Foster (ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, 1st edn, Bay Press, Port Townsend, Washington., pp. xvi, 159 p. Baudrillard, J 1990, Seduction, CultureTexts., Macmillan, London. Bendiner, K 2004, Food in painting : from the Renaissance to the present, Reaktion, London. Berger, J 1972, Ways of seeing, British Broadcasting Corporation, Harmondsworth, London. Berger, J 2001, ‘Understanding a photograph’, in G Dyer (ed.), John Berger : selected essays, Bloomsbury, London, pp. xiii, 588 p. Bourdeau, V 2010, ‘Of Humans, Natures and Human Nature in the Modern Food Chain’, Master of Arts in Sociology thesis, Concordia University. Boym, S 2001, The future of nostalgia, Basic Books, New York. Bryson, N 1990, Looking at the overlooked : four essays on still life painting, Reaktion Books, London. Chase, L 1975, Hyperrealism, Academy Editions, London. De Jongh, E 1993, ‘Realism and seeming realism in seventeenth century Dutch painting’, in WE Franits (ed.), Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art : realism reconsidered, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, pp. xviii, 274 p. Doty, M 2001, Still Life With Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy, Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Dyckes, W 1975, ‘The photo as subject: The paintings and drawings of Chuck Close’, in G Battcock (ed.), Super realism: a critical anthology, Dutton, New York, pp. xxx, 322 p., 328 leaves of plates. Foster, H 1993, ‘The Art of Fetishism: Notes on Dutch Still Life’, in ES Apter & W Pietz (eds), Fetishism as cultural discourse, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y., pp. xi, 393 p. Frow, J 2003, ‘Invidious distinction: waste, difference and classy stuff’, in G Hawkins & S Muecke (eds), Culture and waste: the creation and destruction of value, Rowman & LIttlefield, Lanham, Maryland., pp. xvii, 143 p. Goodman, DJ & Cohen, M 2004, Consumer Culture: a reference handbook, Contemporary world issues, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Calif. Holt-Fortin, C 2012, ‘A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and Thou Beside Me in the Kitchen’, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900-present), vol. 1, no. 2. McCracken, GD 1988, Culture and consumption : new approaches to the symbolic character of consumer goods and activities, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. O’Neill, M 2003, ‘Food Porn’, Columbia Journalism Review, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 38-45. Rousseau, S 2012, Food media : celebrity chefs and the politics of everyday interference, English edn, Berg, London ; New York. Sontag, S 1977, On photography, Penguin, Harmondsworth, Middlesex. Thompson, HGV 2012, ‘The trends in food photography in the late 20th Century.’, viewed 16 December 2015, [http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/food-photography/the-trends-in-food-photography-in-thelate-20th-century%3E] Wadhera, D & Capaldi-Phillips, ED 2014, ‘A review of visual cues associated with food on food acceptance and consumption’, Eating Behaviors, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 132-143. Wansink, B, Mukund, A & Weislogel, A 2016, ‘Food Art Does Not Reflect Reality: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Meals in Popular Paintings’, SAGE Open, vol. 6, no. 3.
More than welcome 2012 acrylic on board, 40 x 80cm Exhibited as part of the John Leslie Art Prize 2014
Settle for less 2013 acrylic on board, 30 x 60cm
Bite your tongue 2013 acrylic on board, 30 x 60cm
A brave face 2013 acrylic on board, 50 x 100cm Private Collection Hobart
JUNK FOOD AND ARTIFICE Consumerism has forced the cultural role of food to shift from necessity to luxury. Now so highly processed, junk food has become a synthetic food product. Through saturated product placement, relatively low cost and a time-poor society, processed food is commonplace and its consumption routine. The food commodification revolution has irreversibly changed our relationship with food. Pre-prepared, readily available, high in sugar, artificial flavouring and saturated fats, junk food appeals to a lifestyle that revolves around immediacy, indulgence and habit. It is a slick and intensely rich indulgence, beyond natural and teetering on fantasy. Much like junk food, my painterly methods are highly processed and orchestrated. Both the subject and the painting are synthetic in their artificiality, unashamedly appetising and easily digestible. Enticing, desirable and accessible, both subject and the painting posses a thin veneer, masking something sinister lying beneath its surface. This investigation analyses desire and convenience, which fuels junk food consumption. Additionally, how the role of fast food is part of disposable consumer compulsion, sculpting identity from within its symbolic cultural makeup. Hyperrealism combined with gestural mark-making explores key concerns of surface and depth, appeal and artifice, value and neglect. The juxtaposition of diverse painterly strategies aims to nurture these deliberate tensions, contextualising our love-hate relationship with food. NATHAN TAYLOR 2014
Self-indulgence I 2014 acrylic on board, 50 x 100cm
Best before I 2014 acrylic on board, 75 x 80cm
Best before IV 2014 acrylic on board, 75 x 80cm
Best before III 2014 acrylic on board, 75 x 80cm
Best before II 2014 acrylic on board, 75 x 80cm
Best before V 2014 acrylic on board, 65 x 130cm Exhibited as part of the Albany Art Prize 2015 Private Collection Hobart
POPULAR FOOD IMAGING Food imaging is everywhere, ingrained in all platforms of popular media that we absorb daily. But are these images an accurate reflection of our current eating and dining practices or are they suggesting something more? Recent studio research undertaken as part of my PhD looks to analyse the role of food imaging within popular culture. By looking specifically at the photographic images that garnish popular cookbooks and social media, I aim to question why these images look they way they do and what makes them so appealing. I eat, I cook and regularly use digital and book-based food resources. Consistent with a majority of everyday consumers, I’m entrenched in a spectacular world of endless food possibilities. Its attractive visual aesthetic is addictive and inescapable. The use of hyper-realism aims to critique key aspects of contemporary food media by offering an alternative perspective to a familiar visual aesthetic. This includes questioning the role of the photograph, the accessibility of digital media and the rise of food porn, all which are contributing to the rapid normalisation of exaggerated food fantasy. As part of my visual critique, I’m deconstructing specific visual cues used in food imaging, such as cropping, props and lighting. These elements are integral to creating an appetising and authentic image, although meticulously tuned through styling. By re-contextualising these attributes through paint, I hope to bring a new perspective towards the way food imaging has become an influential part of the contemporary food experience. Food is integral to our survival, but current food imaging suggests an evolution of this relationship into something more critical. Something that is entirely aspiration, unashamedly hedonistic and increasingly visually orientated. Through this research, I aim to explore the significance and social influence of popular food imaging and raise awareness around its steady campaign towards an exclusive photographic existence. NATHAN TAYLOR 2016
Study V 2015 acrylic on board, 45 x 50cm
Study VI 2014 acrylic on board, 45 x 50cm
Study VII 2015 acrylic on board, 15 x 20cm
Study IX 2016 acrylic on board, 18 x 20cm
Study X 2016 acrylic on board, 50 x 45cm
Study XI 2016 acrylic on board, 50 x 45cm
NATHAN TAYLOR Born 1979 www.nathantaylor.com.au
EDUCATION 2015 2014 2007 2006
Commenced Doctor of Philosophy, Creative Arts, University of Tasmania Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours Research (First Class) Dean’s Honour Roll of excellence Bachelor of Fine Arts The University of Tasmania - Centre for the Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 2014 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007 2005 2003 2000
‘Decoding visual excess’ Moonah Arts Centre, Hobart ‘Best before’ Michael Reid Sydney ‘Loved to death’ Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney ‘Dead to the world’ Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney ‘Homesick’, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne ‘Six New Works’, Despard Gallery, Hobart ‘Culture made easy’, Linden: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne ‘The suburban vernacular’, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne ‘Portrait: New drawings by Nathan Taylor, Despard Gallery, Hobart ‘Recent Paintings’, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney ‘Love & Concrete’, Despard Gallery, Hobart ‘Photographic Memory’, Foyer Installation Gallery, Hobart ‘Reminiscence’, Little Space Gallery, Hobart College, Hobart
CONFERENCES & RESEARCH PROJECTS 2016
Hound in the Hunt, MONA, Painting Exhibition / Experiment, Hobart, Tasmania Food Politics: From the Margins to the Mainstream, Conference paper, UTAS Hobart
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
The Salon, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne Pop-up Exhibition, M Contemporary, Sydney The Colonial to the Personal, The Old Boys Gallery, Christ Church Grammar School, Perth Examination Exhibition, Plimsoll Gallery, Tasmanian College for the Arts, Hobart Australian Landscape: Present in the Now, Michael Reid Berlin, Germany Century of Aesthetics, Little Space Gallery, Hobart College Murr-ma, Jamushek, Hamburger Bahnof, Berlin, Germany Linden Postcard Show, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne Red, Despard Gallery, Hobart Melbourne Art Fair Preview Show, Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney Kodak Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Artist Stable Group Show, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne ArtSale@TMAG, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart ‘Here/Now’, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne 21st Annual Summer Show, Despard Gallery, Hobart Metro 5 Art Award, Benalla Regional Gallery, Benalla 20th Annual Summer Show, Despard Gallery, Hobart New Gallery Launch, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne ‘What ever I like..’ Despard Gallery Anniversary exhibition, Hobart Summer Group Show, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne Melbourne Art Fair, Stand C42, Royal Exhibition Centre, Despard Gallery Artist Stable Launch, Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne Melbourne Art Fair, Stand 55, Royal Exhibition Centre, Despard Gallery “Salon” Tasmanian Group Exhibition, Peter Lane Gallery, Woollahra, NSW 16th Annual Summer Show, Despard Gallery, Hobart
COMMISSIONS 2011 2002
Portrait of His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC & Mrs Underwood Mural for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council Education Centre
COLLECTIONS Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery Maatsuyker Collection Private Collections Nationally
GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS 2015 2007 2006 2003
Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Recipient Janet Holmes á Court Artists’ Grant Recipient Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship Artist Development Grant, Arts Tasmania Industry Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
SELECTED EXHIBITION AND AWARDS 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
Finalist in the City of Albany Art Prize, Albany, Western Australia Finalist in the John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery Finalist in the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs HarbourRegional Gallery Finalist in the Mount Eyre Art Prize, Sydney Winner of the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery Finalist in the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Victoria Finalist in the John Fries Memorial Prize, Sydney Finalist in the City of Hobart Art Prize, Hobart Finalist in the John Fries Memorial Prize, Sydney Finalist in the Corangamarah Art Prize, Victoria Finalist in the Mount Eyre Vineyard Art Prize, Sydney Nominated for Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Sydney – Highly Commended Finalist Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Finalist in the Fletcher Jones Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Victoria Finalist in CLIP Award, Perth Centre for Photography, Western Australia Finalist in the Mount Eyre Vineyard Art Prize, Sydney Finalist in the City of Hobart Art Prize, Hobart
2008 2007 2003 2002
Finalist in The Corangamarah Art Prize, Victoria Finalist in the annual METRO 5 Art Award, Melbourne Finalist in the inaugural Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize Finalist in RIPE Art & Australia / ANZ Private Bank Contemporary Art Award Finalist to The Hutchins Art Prize, Hobart Finalist to the inaugural annual METRO 5 Art Award, Melbourne
SELECTED MEDIA 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
‘Apocrifa Art Magazine’, Jave, Artist Profile, Issue 24, Mexico ‘The Art Life’, Sharne Wolff, Exhibition profile, 21st November ‘Art Almanac’, Exhibition Brief, December / January Issue, Page 55 ‘Belle Magazine’ Arts Page, December / January ‘Art Monthly’, Leigh Summers, Issue 262, August, page 46 Nathan Taylor: Poetics of excess, Monograph, Emily Cloney & Michael Reid ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ Spectrum’, 8th / 9th September, Page 16 ‘The Art Life’, Andrew Frost, Exhibition profile, 14th September ‘Art Almanac’, Exhibition profile, September Issue ‘Belle Magazine’ Anne-Maree Sargeant, Right Now Art, October / November ‘Australian Art Review’ Profile, Jeremy Eccles, May / April ‘Photo Realism’, PhD thesis, Helmut Rauch, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria ‘Belle Magazine’ Tanya Buchanan, Belle Reader Event, June / July, page 93 ‘Sun Herald’ Culture, Andrew Taylor, 7th August ‘Belle Magazine’ Anne-Maree Sargeant, Right Now Art, June / July, page 56 ‘Australian Art: Who, when, what & how much?’ Emily Cloney & Michael ReiD ‘Artist Profile Magazine’ profile, Issue 13 ‘The Australian’ Arts, Out & About, Bridget Cormack, 3rd November Page 16 ‘The Drum Media’ Front Row Arts, Bethany Small, 2nd November, Page 67 & 71 ‘The Mercury’ Gill Vowles, 12th November, Page 7 ‘The Weekend Australian’ Pulse of the Nation, Teresa Ooi, 13th November ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ Spectrum, Lynne Dwyer, 13th / 14th November, Page 13 ‘Nine to Five’ 22nd November, Issue 1122, On The Wall ‘The Daily Telegraph’ 13th November ‘The Art Market Monitor’ Michael Reid, 27th October
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
Television Article, Sky News, Your Money Your Call, Michael Reid & David Cook ‘Art Almanac’, Exhibition profile, September Issue ‘The Saturday Mercury’ Inside Stories, 20th June, page 7 ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ James Cockington, 25th March, page 3 ‘Australian Art Collector’, 50 Most Collectable Artists, Issue #47 ‘The Apple’ TMAGgots, Sixth Issue, Autumn Radio Interview, 936 ABC Radio Hobart, Annie Warburton Radio Interview, Edge FM, Wayne Brooke ‘The Art Market Report’ Editor’s Choice, Issue #30, page 42 ‘The Mercury’ Gallery Watch, Clyde Selby, Review, 15th November, page 8 ‘Sunday Tasmanian’, Penny Thow, Sunday, 2nd November, page 5 ‘Art Almanac’, Exhibition profile, November Issue ‘Australian Art Collector’, Judith Abell, TasWrap, Issue #46, page 318 ‘The Age’, Metro, Ross Moore, 22nd August, page 17 ‘The Age’, A2, Ashley Crawford, 16th August, page 22 ‘Artist Profile’, Must See, Issue #4, page 97 ‘The Age’, A2, Nicole Bittar, 12th July, page 8 ‘Moreland Leader’ Art, David Stockman, 9th June, page 24 ‘Moreland Community News’, Pinar Gencturk, 10th June, page 9 ‘The Financial Review’, Lyndall Crisp, Arts, 15th & 16th December, page 27 ‘Portrait: New drawings by Nathan Taylor’ Catalogue essay, Wayne Brookes ‘Art Almanac’, Exhibition profile, September Issue ‘The Age’, A2, Megan Backhouse, 22nd September, page 20 ‘The Age’, Metro, Megan Backhouse, 15th August, page 17 ‘Suburban Vernacular’, Catalogue Essay, Ashley Crawford ‘The Australian Art Market Report’, Issue #20, Winter ‘The Wentworth Courier’, Collector, 30th November, page 80 ‘The Australian Art Market Report’, Issue #18, Summer, page 28 ‘The Age’, Metro, Megan Backhouse, 26th October, page 19 ‘Nathan Taylor: Concrete Poetics’, Kit Wise, Brian Moore Gallery ‘The Financial Review’, Lyndall Crisp, Arts, 7th October, page 51 ‘State of the Arts’, Laura Murray, October – December Television Article, ‘Love This Place’, Southern Cross Television
ARTIST TALKS 2016 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Friends’ School University of Tasmania Mount Carmel College Sandy Bay Infant School St Michael’s Collegiate School Belle Magazine Artist Dinner Island Art Collection University of Tasmania Hobart College Friends’ School
Designed by Nathan Taylor Copyright Š 2016 Nathan would like to thank Seån Kelly and the team at the Moonah Arts Centre, Michael Reid Gallery, Scott Livesy Gallery, Bett Gallery, Dr Megan Keating, Anne MacDonald and Aaron Horsley for their support. Special thanks to Jane Barlow. Email: info@nathantaylor.com.au Photography of artworks by Nathan Taylor and Simon Cuthbert. All images reproduced with permission. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of criticism, review or private reseach as allowed under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means without written permission. This project has been supported by the University of Tasmania. Nathan Taylor is represented by: Bett Gallery Hobart - www.bettgallery.com.au Michael Reid Sydney - www.michaelreid.com.au
DECODING VISUAL EXCESS Nathan Taylor
MOONAH ARTS CENTRE 24 NOV - 17 DEC 2016
MOONAHARTSCENTRE.ORG.AU NATHANTAYLOR.COM.AU 23-27 ALBERT ROAD MOONAH TUESDAY TO FRIDAY 10AM - 5PM SATURDAY 11AM - 3PM
DECODING VISUAL EXCESS Nathan Taylor
MOONAH ARTS CENTRE 24 NOV - 17 DEC 2016 MOONAHARTSCENTRE.ORG.AU NATHANTAYLOR.COM.AU
23-27 ALBERT ROAD MOONAH TUESDAY TO FRIDAY 10AM - 5PM SATURDAY 11AM - 3PM
COVER: Study V Acrylic on board, 40 x 50cm, 2015