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Nathan Taylor: the poetics of excessEmily Cloney and Michael Reid
Nathan Taylor:the poetics of excess
Nathan Taylor:the poetics of excess
Nathan Taylor:the poetics of excess
Nathan Taylor:the poetics of excess
www.nathantaylor.com.au
email: [email protected]
Nathan Taylor is represented by
Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay44 Roslyn Gardens
Elizabeth Bay
Sydney
New South Wales 2011
Australia
www.michaelreid.com.au
Telephone: +61 2 8353 3500
Copyright © Nathan Taylor, Emily Cloney and Michael Reid
© Artworks, Nathan Taylor
© Texts, the authors
All images reproduced with permission.
Nathan Taylor: the poetics of excessISBN 978-0-9873499-0-3 Hardback
All rights reserved.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for purposes of criticism, review or private research as allowed under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means without written permission.
Edited by Emily Cloney
Designed by Keong Loh
Photography of artworks by Simon Cuthbert,
Jeremy Dillon and Peter Angus Robinson
Cover
Dead to the world
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Frontispiece
Taken to heart (detail)
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
For Jane, Etta and Amina
Nathan Taylor, 2012
www.nathantaylor.com.au
email: [email protected]
Nathan Taylor is represented by
Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay44 Roslyn Gardens
Elizabeth Bay
Sydney
New South Wales 2011
Australia
www.michaelreid.com.au
Telephone: +61 2 8353 3500
Copyright © Nathan Taylor, Emily Cloney and Michael Reid
© Artworks, Nathan Taylor
© Texts, the authors
All images reproduced with permission.
Nathan Taylor: the poetics of excessISBN 978-0-9873499-0-3 Hardback
All rights reserved.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for purposes of criticism, review or private research as allowed under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any means without written permission.
Edited by Emily Cloney
Designed by Keong Loh
Photography of artworks by Simon Cuthbert,
Jeremy Dillon and Peter Angus Robinson
Cover
Dead to the world
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Frontispiece
Taken to heart (detail)
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
For Jane, Etta and Amina
Nathan Taylor, 2012
ix
Foreword Sheer skill is just not enough. It is as simple
as that.
Admiration for technique can confuse skill
with worth. A close inspection of a well-
carved wooden sphere reveals that it is just
that, a round bit of carved wood. The carving
is skilful yet it is no more than a ball. You can
be left wondering where else the artisan could
have taken that particular piece of wood.
Craftsmanship bereft of significance can be
disappointing. There needs to be more to
an artwork than technique. What is truly
mesmerising is when an artist such as Nathan
Taylor, a practitioner of great ability, uses his
exquisite technique to develop his subject
into a broader discussion of today’s world.
In Nathan’s paintings ability and content are
equally fascinating and it is a fascination that
lasts.
Nathan’s paintings tell a contemporary story
in two ways, often simultaneously. There is
Nathan Taylor, the landscape painter. Not the
wide brown land for Nathan, nor the sweeping
plains. No, those are not his landscapes.
Nathan is a painter of the landscape of urban
Australia, documenting the overflowing bins
and worn pavements of suburban streets.
Nathan’s landscapes dwell on neglected
moments. They give prominence to carefully
designed objects that have been worn through
use and then often simply discarded - a
shopping trolley, wheels askew and broken,
left forever haunting a far corner of Planet
Parking Station. Nathan’s paintings are kind
(and he is a kind person) and his observations
recognise and thereby re-include the
abandoned.
Acting in concert with his recording of an
urban landscape, is Nathan’s forensic noting
of the detritus of our lives. His paintings are
visual manuscripts detailing the fat-saturated
excesses of our society right now.
ix
Foreword Sheer skill is just not enough. It is as simple
as that.
Admiration for technique can confuse skill
with worth. A close inspection of a well-
carved wooden sphere reveals that it is just
that, a round bit of carved wood. The carving
is skilful yet it is no more than a ball. You can
be left wondering where else the artisan could
have taken that particular piece of wood.
Craftsmanship bereft of significance can be
disappointing. There needs to be more to
an artwork than technique. What is truly
mesmerising is when an artist such as Nathan
Taylor, a practitioner of great ability, uses his
exquisite technique to develop his subject
into a broader discussion of today’s world.
In Nathan’s paintings ability and content are
equally fascinating and it is a fascination that
lasts.
Nathan’s paintings tell a contemporary story
in two ways, often simultaneously. There is
Nathan Taylor, the landscape painter. Not the
wide brown land for Nathan, nor the sweeping
plains. No, those are not his landscapes.
Nathan is a painter of the landscape of urban
Australia, documenting the overflowing bins
and worn pavements of suburban streets.
Nathan’s landscapes dwell on neglected
moments. They give prominence to carefully
designed objects that have been worn through
use and then often simply discarded - a
shopping trolley, wheels askew and broken,
left forever haunting a far corner of Planet
Parking Station. Nathan’s paintings are kind
(and he is a kind person) and his observations
recognise and thereby re-include the
abandoned.
Acting in concert with his recording of an
urban landscape, is Nathan’s forensic noting
of the detritus of our lives. His paintings are
visual manuscripts detailing the fat-saturated
excesses of our society right now.
x xi
Preface This book, spanning just over ten years of my
practice, illustrates nearly all of my completed
works since 2001. The concept of creating
such a thorough survey was born from a
conversation with Michael Reid about how,
usually not long after they are completed, my
works sell and then disappear. This sudden
total absence contrasts starkly with the
concentrated weeks spent in their creation
and fabrication. It is as rewarding as it is
challenging. Knowing my works are being
shared and enjoyed is part of the satisfaction
of being an artist but the routine of their swift
removal after weeks of concentrated work can
sometimes feel like a perpetual cycle.
Despite being initially slightly hesitant about
Michael’s idea, the end result has proved to
be particularly gratifying. Collating all these
works has revealed a valuable perspective
towards my own practice, giving structure
to the slow progression and development of
ideas. It has also offered me the opportunity
to rediscover and reconnect with older works.
Above all, it has enabled me to share my
perspective and visual journey through a
changing world.
This book shows – hopefully – only a small
section of my work yet to be completed. I
believe that distinguishing what has already
been accomplished, gives direction for the
next challenge.
Nathan Taylor, 2012
He documents in paint today’s important
stories - the wastefulness of packaging and
the causes of obesity are shown through
garish Chiko Roll and Dagwood Dog wrappers
and supersized, bubble-top drink containers
drained of their all-your-sugar-intake-for-a-
week-in-one-go contents. In twenty years’
time we may find ourselves telling a child how
a cigarette was something that you lit, inhaled
its smoke and then, as the fire got close to
your fingers, stubbed out to leave a butt. At
some point in the future we will find ourselves
explaining to an incredulous audience just
how we lived our lives. Nathan’s paintings will
help us to do that.
So, alongside the wow factor of his skill and
mastery of his medium, Nathan’s paintings are
both landscapes and manuscripts. There is a
great deal to the paintings of Nathan Taylor
and they are very important.
Michael Reid, 2012
x xi
Preface This book, spanning just over ten years of my
practice, illustrates nearly all of my completed
works since 2001. The concept of creating
such a thorough survey was born from a
conversation with Michael Reid about how,
usually not long after they are completed, my
works sell and then disappear. This sudden
total absence contrasts starkly with the
concentrated weeks spent in their creation
and fabrication. It is as rewarding as it is
challenging. Knowing my works are being
shared and enjoyed is part of the satisfaction
of being an artist but the routine of their swift
removal after weeks of concentrated work can
sometimes feel like a perpetual cycle.
Despite being initially slightly hesitant about
Michael’s idea, the end result has proved to
be particularly gratifying. Collating all these
works has revealed a valuable perspective
towards my own practice, giving structure
to the slow progression and development of
ideas. It has also offered me the opportunity
to rediscover and reconnect with older works.
Above all, it has enabled me to share my
perspective and visual journey through a
changing world.
This book shows – hopefully – only a small
section of my work yet to be completed. I
believe that distinguishing what has already
been accomplished, gives direction for the
next challenge.
Nathan Taylor, 2012
He documents in paint today’s important
stories - the wastefulness of packaging and
the causes of obesity are shown through
garish Chiko Roll and Dagwood Dog wrappers
and supersized, bubble-top drink containers
drained of their all-your-sugar-intake-for-a-
week-in-one-go contents. In twenty years’
time we may find ourselves telling a child how
a cigarette was something that you lit, inhaled
its smoke and then, as the fire got close to
your fingers, stubbed out to leave a butt. At
some point in the future we will find ourselves
explaining to an incredulous audience just
how we lived our lives. Nathan’s paintings will
help us to do that.
So, alongside the wow factor of his skill and
mastery of his medium, Nathan’s paintings are
both landscapes and manuscripts. There is a
great deal to the paintings of Nathan Taylor
and they are very important.
Michael Reid, 2012
xiii
Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the writers who
contributed to expanding my ideas and
sharing their own interpretations and also
those clients who kindly lent back artworks
to be photographed for inclusion. I would like
to thank the staff at Michael Reid at Elizabeth
Bay who are particularly patient when it
comes to very fastidious and slow working
artists. A very big thank you to Michael Reid
not only for all his enthusiasm and confidence
for the project but also his unconditional and
ongoing support in driving and promoting my
practice. A special thank you to Emily Cloney,
who has been at the soul of the project and
without whom it would never have come to
fruition. Emily’s guidance and hard work has
made the entire project thoroughly rewarding.
I would like to thank my parents who have
always been, and continue to be, supportive
towards all my artistic objectives. Finally,
thank you to my partner Jane who selflessly
is always there for me, offering support, but
more importantly, an honest opinion.
Nathan Taylor, 2012
xiii
Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the writers who
contributed to expanding my ideas and
sharing their own interpretations and also
those clients who kindly lent back artworks
to be photographed for inclusion. I would like
to thank the staff at Michael Reid at Elizabeth
Bay who are particularly patient when it
comes to very fastidious and slow working
artists. A very big thank you to Michael Reid
not only for all his enthusiasm and confidence
for the project but also his unconditional and
ongoing support in driving and promoting my
practice. A special thank you to Emily Cloney,
who has been at the soul of the project and
without whom it would never have come to
fruition. Emily’s guidance and hard work has
made the entire project thoroughly rewarding.
I would like to thank my parents who have
always been, and continue to be, supportive
towards all my artistic objectives. Finally,
thank you to my partner Jane who selflessly
is always there for me, offering support, but
more importantly, an honest opinion.
Nathan Taylor, 2012
Contents Foreword .........................................................................vii
Preface ..............................................................................ix
Acknowledgements ......................................................xi
Introduction ..................................................................... 1
Conversation with Nathan Taylor ...............................7
Nathan Taylor: An Overview from the Studio ....... 17
Early Work 2001-2004 .............................................. 23
Concrete Poetics 2005 .............................................. 39
Melbourne Art Fair 2006 .......................................... 53
The Suburban Vernacular 2006-2007 .................. 63
Portraits: New Drawings 2007 ................................79
Culture Made Easy 2008 .......................................... 93
Homesick 2008-2009 ............................................. 103
Dead to the World 2009 -2010 .............................. 115
Loved to Death 2011-2012 ........................................ 131
Photographs 2008-2011 .......................................... 143
Nathan Taylor ............................................................. 159
Plates .............................................................................167
Contributors.................................................................175
Contents Foreword .........................................................................vii
Preface ..............................................................................ix
Acknowledgements ......................................................xi
Introduction ..................................................................... 1
Conversation with Nathan Taylor ...............................7
Nathan Taylor: An Overview from the Studio ....... 17
Early Work 2001-2004 .............................................. 23
Concrete Poetics 2005 .............................................. 39
Melbourne Art Fair 2006 .......................................... 53
The Suburban Vernacular 2006-2007 .................. 63
Portraits: New Drawings 2007 ................................79
Culture Made Easy 2008 .......................................... 93
Homesick 2008-2009 ............................................. 103
Dead to the World 2009 -2010 .............................. 115
Loved to Death 2011-2012 ........................................ 131
Photographs 2008-2011 .......................................... 143
Nathan Taylor ............................................................. 159
Plates .............................................................................167
Contributors.................................................................175
1
An artist lives in the same universe as
everybody else but sees it in a completely
different way. In 2001 the twenty-one-year-
old Nathan Taylor was already viewing the
world around him as an inexhaustible source
of wonders. A Hills Hoist, a chrome towel rail,
the top of a stove, a bubbler on a brick wall -
all these things took on an unexpected lustre
when removed from their original context and
recorded with the fastidious care that has
been a part of Taylor’s approach from the very
beginning.
At a precociously early stage Taylor learned
a lesson that eludes many artists throughout
their entire lives: that, in the words of
celebrated realist Gustave Flaubert, “There
is not a particle of life that does not contain
poetry within it.”
While so many artists strive for a dubious
originality, jumping between styles and media,
Taylor recognised that one could not help but
be original if one attended closely enough
to the data gathered by the senses. He soon
found that these pictures had a powerful
appeal for viewers unaccustomed to pausing
and scrutinising the surfaces of things with
such intensity.
Part of the appeal was Taylor’s ability to freeze
time as if he had hit the pause button on an
incredibly detailed film of a typical day in the
suburbs. Those things we walk past without a
second glance suddenly took on a new allure.
The reflections on a shiny metal bubbler
sparkled like the Crown Jewels. A greasy
frying pan on a stove top became a receptacle
of secrets. Objects that were previously
invisible, because so common, had magically
grown an aura.
This ability to extract wonder from the
everyday is one of the most fundamental
aspects of art. The Russian Formalist,
Viktor Shklovsky described it as a process
of ostranenie or “making strange”1 and the
American philosopher, Arthur C. Danto called
it “the transfiguration of the commonplace”.2
The paradox is that no artist can ever produce
an exact duplicate of reality. Time and entropy
ensure that the actual object is always
changing, albeit undetectably. The most
detailed and exacting pictures remind us all
the more forcibly of the impossibility of the
task. This may be why Taylor is not content
simply to paint an object from a uniform
distance every time. In his imaginary video
of life he frequently hits the zoom button,
bringing us uncomfortably close to a soiled
Introduction
1Shklovsky, Viktor , ‘Art as Technique’ (1917) in David Lodge (ed.) Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, Longman, London, 1988
2Danto, Arthur C., The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art, Harvard U.P, Boston, 1983
1
An artist lives in the same universe as
everybody else but sees it in a completely
different way. In 2001 the twenty-one-year-
old Nathan Taylor was already viewing the
world around him as an inexhaustible source
of wonders. A Hills Hoist, a chrome towel rail,
the top of a stove, a bubbler on a brick wall -
all these things took on an unexpected lustre
when removed from their original context and
recorded with the fastidious care that has
been a part of Taylor’s approach from the very
beginning.
At a precociously early stage Taylor learned
a lesson that eludes many artists throughout
their entire lives: that, in the words of
celebrated realist Gustave Flaubert, “There
is not a particle of life that does not contain
poetry within it.”
While so many artists strive for a dubious
originality, jumping between styles and media,
Taylor recognised that one could not help but
be original if one attended closely enough
to the data gathered by the senses. He soon
found that these pictures had a powerful
appeal for viewers unaccustomed to pausing
and scrutinising the surfaces of things with
such intensity.
Part of the appeal was Taylor’s ability to freeze
time as if he had hit the pause button on an
incredibly detailed film of a typical day in the
suburbs. Those things we walk past without a
second glance suddenly took on a new allure.
The reflections on a shiny metal bubbler
sparkled like the Crown Jewels. A greasy
frying pan on a stove top became a receptacle
of secrets. Objects that were previously
invisible, because so common, had magically
grown an aura.
This ability to extract wonder from the
everyday is one of the most fundamental
aspects of art. The Russian Formalist,
Viktor Shklovsky described it as a process
of ostranenie or “making strange”1 and the
American philosopher, Arthur C. Danto called
it “the transfiguration of the commonplace”.2
The paradox is that no artist can ever produce
an exact duplicate of reality. Time and entropy
ensure that the actual object is always
changing, albeit undetectably. The most
detailed and exacting pictures remind us all
the more forcibly of the impossibility of the
task. This may be why Taylor is not content
simply to paint an object from a uniform
distance every time. In his imaginary video
of life he frequently hits the zoom button,
bringing us uncomfortably close to a soiled
Introduction
1Shklovsky, Viktor , ‘Art as Technique’ (1917) in David Lodge (ed.) Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader, Longman, London, 1988
2Danto, Arthur C., The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art, Harvard U.P, Boston, 1983
2 3
towel or a dripping tap, and often adopts
a fly’s perspective to allow us to view, for
example, a portable barbecue from beneath.
Banality gives way to monumentality as a
domestic implement impersonates public
sculpture.
Taylor’s titles for these works are all clichés,
or quasi-clichés: Be my guest, Business
and pleasure, Kids stay free, and so on. He
interrogates each image in his mind, thinking
how it may be fitted into a wider narrative.
The connections are oblique but not
implausible. A work such as Open all hours is a
tight close-up of a dripping metal tap over the
urinal in a pub. We imagine ourselves looking
through the eyes of a customer playing the
poker machines into the small hours of the
morning, making repeated visits to the Gents.
Or at least we might imagine such a scenario
if it wasn’t for the tiny reflection of the artist
and his camera, which serves as a signature.
Although Taylor’s brushwork is never less than
immaculate there is a pervasive tawdriness
to these subjects. The ground-level view of
a shopping trolley in One size fits all stands
in contrast to the tempting packaging and
presentation of goods in the supermarket.
Beyond the door of that temple of seductions
we enter a world of red-painted bricks,
mouldering wooden slats and a concrete
pavement littered with debris. In With friends
like these there are similar associations as
bottles of the sickly, coloured syrups used for
making Sno Kones seem to promise happiness
but are really a recipe for obesity and tooth
decay.
This hint of subliminal moralising lies in the
titles rather than the works themselves. Taylor
is at home playing the role of a suburban
archaeologist depicting old, discarded
electronic devices such as a vacuum cleaner,
a fan and a kettle. He was able to reassure
himself of the relative uniformity of consumer
society throughout the western world when,
in 2006, he secured a scholarship from the
Marten Bequest and travelled to New York,
Paris, London and Italy.
One of the direct results of that trip was a
series of detailed portrait drawings inspired
by a show of portraits by David Hockney that
Taylor saw in London. He admired the intimacy
and simplicity of these pictures and set out
to create his own small gallery of family and
close friends. In style these exquisite drawings
seem to owe less to Hockney than to an artist
such as Philip Pearlstein, who has a very
similar touch in the depiction of light and
shade on faces and clothing.
During his overseas excursion Taylor took
photographs of the urban detritus that forms
his characteristic subject matter but much
of his time was spent in museums, where he
studied everything from the Old Masters to
the American Photorealists (whose work most
closely resembles his own).
Although Taylor shares the same reliance
on the photographic image, Photorealism is
a much broader category than commonly
believed. For instance, Taylor may have a
similar fascination with reflections as Richard
Estes but he is not a painter of sweeping
architectural vistas. Much of his work may
be classified as still life but there is nothing
so neat and formal as one of Ralph Goings’
pictures. He may use strong colours but never
in such a lurid, confrontational manner as
Audrey Flack.
Unlike most Photorealists, who disavowed
the idea that their work had any deeper
significance beyond its responsiveness to
surfaces, it is important to Taylor that his
work is meaningful. Because the Photorealist
movement arose at a time when Pop
Art, Conceptual Art and various forms of
Abstraction were the recognised avant-
gardes, the work was interpreted in relation
to each of these tendencies. Many of the
Photorealists were happy to echo the dictum
of abstract artist, Frank Stella: “What you
see is what you see.” Some saw their work in
terms of perceptual problems, others aligned
themselves with the value-free
representation of the world practised by the
Pop artists.
Of the leading exponents of Photorealism –
also known as Hyperrealism or Superrealism
– the sculptor Duane Hanson was almost
unique in admitting that his work had a
socio-political agenda, touching on “the
resignation, emptiness and loneliness of
suburban existence.”3 Hanson also took the
Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement
as subjects.
Taylor is not so overtly political but he is
disturbed by the ever-increasing power of
the culture of consumption. He is alert to the
way objects begin to take the place of values,
with every gadget or sugary drink providing
a momentary contentment that soon fades.
A characteristic work from this time is Make
ends meet – a virtuoso image of a clear plastic
drink container lying on a mottled pavement,
with traces of pink-tinged liquid still visible
within it. In the complex play of shadows
and reflections we glimpse the artist’s own
silhouette.
3Entry on ‘Photorealism’ in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 24, Oxford U.P. Oxford, 2003, p.687.
2 3
towel or a dripping tap, and often adopts
a fly’s perspective to allow us to view, for
example, a portable barbecue from beneath.
Banality gives way to monumentality as a
domestic implement impersonates public
sculpture.
Taylor’s titles for these works are all clichés,
or quasi-clichés: Be my guest, Business
and pleasure, Kids stay free, and so on. He
interrogates each image in his mind, thinking
how it may be fitted into a wider narrative.
The connections are oblique but not
implausible. A work such as Open all hours is a
tight close-up of a dripping metal tap over the
urinal in a pub. We imagine ourselves looking
through the eyes of a customer playing the
poker machines into the small hours of the
morning, making repeated visits to the Gents.
Or at least we might imagine such a scenario
if it wasn’t for the tiny reflection of the artist
and his camera, which serves as a signature.
Although Taylor’s brushwork is never less than
immaculate there is a pervasive tawdriness
to these subjects. The ground-level view of
a shopping trolley in One size fits all stands
in contrast to the tempting packaging and
presentation of goods in the supermarket.
Beyond the door of that temple of seductions
we enter a world of red-painted bricks,
mouldering wooden slats and a concrete
pavement littered with debris. In With friends
like these there are similar associations as
bottles of the sickly, coloured syrups used for
making Sno Kones seem to promise happiness
but are really a recipe for obesity and tooth
decay.
This hint of subliminal moralising lies in the
titles rather than the works themselves. Taylor
is at home playing the role of a suburban
archaeologist depicting old, discarded
electronic devices such as a vacuum cleaner,
a fan and a kettle. He was able to reassure
himself of the relative uniformity of consumer
society throughout the western world when,
in 2006, he secured a scholarship from the
Marten Bequest and travelled to New York,
Paris, London and Italy.
One of the direct results of that trip was a
series of detailed portrait drawings inspired
by a show of portraits by David Hockney that
Taylor saw in London. He admired the intimacy
and simplicity of these pictures and set out
to create his own small gallery of family and
close friends. In style these exquisite drawings
seem to owe less to Hockney than to an artist
such as Philip Pearlstein, who has a very
similar touch in the depiction of light and
shade on faces and clothing.
During his overseas excursion Taylor took
photographs of the urban detritus that forms
his characteristic subject matter but much
of his time was spent in museums, where he
studied everything from the Old Masters to
the American Photorealists (whose work most
closely resembles his own).
Although Taylor shares the same reliance
on the photographic image, Photorealism is
a much broader category than commonly
believed. For instance, Taylor may have a
similar fascination with reflections as Richard
Estes but he is not a painter of sweeping
architectural vistas. Much of his work may
be classified as still life but there is nothing
so neat and formal as one of Ralph Goings’
pictures. He may use strong colours but never
in such a lurid, confrontational manner as
Audrey Flack.
Unlike most Photorealists, who disavowed
the idea that their work had any deeper
significance beyond its responsiveness to
surfaces, it is important to Taylor that his
work is meaningful. Because the Photorealist
movement arose at a time when Pop
Art, Conceptual Art and various forms of
Abstraction were the recognised avant-
gardes, the work was interpreted in relation
to each of these tendencies. Many of the
Photorealists were happy to echo the dictum
of abstract artist, Frank Stella: “What you
see is what you see.” Some saw their work in
terms of perceptual problems, others aligned
themselves with the value-free
representation of the world practised by the
Pop artists.
Of the leading exponents of Photorealism –
also known as Hyperrealism or Superrealism
– the sculptor Duane Hanson was almost
unique in admitting that his work had a
socio-political agenda, touching on “the
resignation, emptiness and loneliness of
suburban existence.”3 Hanson also took the
Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement
as subjects.
Taylor is not so overtly political but he is
disturbed by the ever-increasing power of
the culture of consumption. He is alert to the
way objects begin to take the place of values,
with every gadget or sugary drink providing
a momentary contentment that soon fades.
A characteristic work from this time is Make
ends meet – a virtuoso image of a clear plastic
drink container lying on a mottled pavement,
with traces of pink-tinged liquid still visible
within it. In the complex play of shadows
and reflections we glimpse the artist’s own
silhouette.
3Entry on ‘Photorealism’ in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 24, Oxford U.P. Oxford, 2003, p.687.
4 5
This squalid scene has its own unlikely beauty
in the way Taylor has depicted the patterns
on the pavement, the stains that creep across
its surface, and the cigarette butts in both
foreground and background. There is pathos
in the thought of the small, fleeting pleasures
generated by the fags and the drink, and the
decorative pavement now smeared with dirt.
The drink container with the rose-coloured
liquid reappears in Once in a while, from
Taylor’s 2008-2009 series, ‘Homesick’. This
time the cup is lying on a bench, still half-full,
with a straw protuding at a jaunty angle. The
title captures a sense of guilty indulgence, as if
the purchaser of the drink is confessing to an
occasional urge for one of these things even
though he knows it’s unhealthy. It is tempting
to complete the narrative by having the
drinker feel satiated after a few sips, walking
away filled with self-disgust.
Around this time Taylor also began
exhibiting his photographs which explore
the same territory as the paintings and act
as vital source material. To juxtapose these
photographic images with their painted
counterparts is to become freshly conscious
of the exacting standards the artist sets for
himself. It also demonstrates the painterly
dimension of canvases that seem almost
photographic. Put these pictures alongside
an actual photo and the differences become
apparent. One sees that Taylor’s paintings
are montages in which details are taken from
various photos and brought together in new
compositions. Looking at the photographs
one recognises the extreme sharpness of his
eye and the perhaps obsessive dimension of
his work. Imagine coming across him lying on
the ground as he focuses his camera on an ice
cream cone or a bag of chips, feeling excited
by his fantastic discovery.
Over the past two years this obsessive
dimension has become ever more
pronounced. Taylor’s recent pictures are
extraordinary in their detail, in the depiction
of contrasting surfaces and textures. In Taken
to heart the dull metal grid on the top of a
bubbler is juxtaposed with the shiny metal
of the tap, the flaking paint of its central bolt,
a discarded piece of cellophane and a small
green blob of chewing gum.
Paintings such as Dead to the world or Serve
you right present an even more impressive
collection of competing textures. The
repulsive spectacle of a fithy, overloaded
garbage bin becomes a spellbinding display of
painterly technique. Such pictures show Taylor
growing in skill and ambition, turning the most
4 5
This squalid scene has its own unlikely beauty
in the way Taylor has depicted the patterns
on the pavement, the stains that creep across
its surface, and the cigarette butts in both
foreground and background. There is pathos
in the thought of the small, fleeting pleasures
generated by the fags and the drink, and the
decorative pavement now smeared with dirt.
The drink container with the rose-coloured
liquid reappears in Once in a while, from
Taylor’s 2008-2009 series, ‘Homesick’. This
time the cup is lying on a bench, still half-full,
with a straw protuding at a jaunty angle. The
title captures a sense of guilty indulgence, as if
the purchaser of the drink is confessing to an
occasional urge for one of these things even
though he knows it’s unhealthy. It is tempting
to complete the narrative by having the
drinker feel satiated after a few sips, walking
away filled with self-disgust.
Around this time Taylor also began
exhibiting his photographs which explore
the same territory as the paintings and act
as vital source material. To juxtapose these
photographic images with their painted
counterparts is to become freshly conscious
of the exacting standards the artist sets for
himself. It also demonstrates the painterly
dimension of canvases that seem almost
photographic. Put these pictures alongside
an actual photo and the differences become
apparent. One sees that Taylor’s paintings
are montages in which details are taken from
various photos and brought together in new
compositions. Looking at the photographs
one recognises the extreme sharpness of his
eye and the perhaps obsessive dimension of
his work. Imagine coming across him lying on
the ground as he focuses his camera on an ice
cream cone or a bag of chips, feeling excited
by his fantastic discovery.
Over the past two years this obsessive
dimension has become ever more
pronounced. Taylor’s recent pictures are
extraordinary in their detail, in the depiction
of contrasting surfaces and textures. In Taken
to heart the dull metal grid on the top of a
bubbler is juxtaposed with the shiny metal
of the tap, the flaking paint of its central bolt,
a discarded piece of cellophane and a small
green blob of chewing gum.
Paintings such as Dead to the world or Serve
you right present an even more impressive
collection of competing textures. The
repulsive spectacle of a fithy, overloaded
garbage bin becomes a spellbinding display of
painterly technique. Such pictures show Taylor
growing in skill and ambition, turning the most
6 7
ordinary motifs into elaborate anatomies of
waste, decay and obsolescence. These are
more than brilliant but empty copies of reality.
The painted objects have such a dynamic
presence they seem not merely real, but
super-real. There is almost more reality than
the senses can handle: a poetics of excess
produced with the most painstaking discipline.
“Realism is not disinterested,” Bernard
Berenson once wrote. “It has a dogma to
proclaim, a theology to defend.”4 He was
talking about the work of another era, but his
words capture some of the feeling one takes
away from Taylor’s deadpan but savage vistas
of a disposable society. By immortalising all
that is ephemeral, he creates a monument to
the lowliness of our expectations, the cheap
thrills of shopping and snacking. The colours
may be bright but these paintings provide a
window onto a world rapidly subsiding into
picturesque decay.
John McDonald
4Berenson, Bernard, Aesthetics and History in the Visual Arts, Pantheon, New York, 1948, p. 131.
Have you always painted?
I have always enjoyed being creative. All
my interests right through high school were
creatively based - art (first drawing, then
painting), ceramics, music and drama. I
was lucky enough to have very inspiring
teachers who both encouraged and pushed
me artistically. There was a lot of space to
explore ideas and support to develop them. I
think this was a very important time for me
and helped to drive my passion for a career in
visual art.
Initially, I was drawn to painting as a technical
pursuit; enjoying the challenges of advancing
my ability, but it soon took on a life of its
own, becoming a strong medium through
which to express my ideas. Even from early
on realism proved to be a rewarding way
of reaching a broad audience base. The
ability to communicate ideas confidently is
still an integral part of my practice. I think
that painting as a visual language has great
substance and that realism, as a voice, has an
honest message.
Where do you paint?
I paint from a studio situated above a car
rental place in Hobart’s CBD in an old art deco
building that was once home to an ambulance
call centre. My studio is part of the home
of a very good friend - a fellow artist who
was a very important teaching figure for me
during my pre-tertiary studies. His strength
of character and unparalleled enthusiasm for
painting was instrumental in encouraging me
to pursue a career in art and he continues to
be an important and refreshingly objective
critic for my practice.
Do you paint from life or from photographs?
I mainly paint from photographs. Photography
plays an instrumental role in my practice and
has basically become my drawing.
Each painting is born from over a hundred
photographs in which I experiment with
different aesthetics and subject matters,
slowly refining each element till I find one on
which to base a composition. Some concepts
originate from random survey shots, others
are drawn from more deliberate, concentrated
sessions. Compositional elements for each
painting are fastidiously considered but not
deliberately choreographed.
ConversationwithNathan Taylor
6 7
ordinary motifs into elaborate anatomies of
waste, decay and obsolescence. These are
more than brilliant but empty copies of reality.
The painted objects have such a dynamic
presence they seem not merely real, but
super-real. There is almost more reality than
the senses can handle: a poetics of excess
produced with the most painstaking discipline.
“Realism is not disinterested,” Bernard
Berenson once wrote. “It has a dogma to
proclaim, a theology to defend.”4 He was
talking about the work of another era, but his
words capture some of the feeling one takes
away from Taylor’s deadpan but savage vistas
of a disposable society. By immortalising all
that is ephemeral, he creates a monument to
the lowliness of our expectations, the cheap
thrills of shopping and snacking. The colours
may be bright but these paintings provide a
window onto a world rapidly subsiding into
picturesque decay.
John McDonald
4Berenson, Bernard, Aesthetics and History in the Visual Arts, Pantheon, New York, 1948, p. 131.
Have you always painted?
I have always enjoyed being creative. All
my interests right through high school were
creatively based - art (first drawing, then
painting), ceramics, music and drama. I
was lucky enough to have very inspiring
teachers who both encouraged and pushed
me artistically. There was a lot of space to
explore ideas and support to develop them. I
think this was a very important time for me
and helped to drive my passion for a career in
visual art.
Initially, I was drawn to painting as a technical
pursuit; enjoying the challenges of advancing
my ability, but it soon took on a life of its
own, becoming a strong medium through
which to express my ideas. Even from early
on realism proved to be a rewarding way
of reaching a broad audience base. The
ability to communicate ideas confidently is
still an integral part of my practice. I think
that painting as a visual language has great
substance and that realism, as a voice, has an
honest message.
Where do you paint?
I paint from a studio situated above a car
rental place in Hobart’s CBD in an old art deco
building that was once home to an ambulance
call centre. My studio is part of the home
of a very good friend - a fellow artist who
was a very important teaching figure for me
during my pre-tertiary studies. His strength
of character and unparalleled enthusiasm for
painting was instrumental in encouraging me
to pursue a career in art and he continues to
be an important and refreshingly objective
critic for my practice.
Do you paint from life or from photographs?
I mainly paint from photographs. Photography
plays an instrumental role in my practice and
has basically become my drawing.
Each painting is born from over a hundred
photographs in which I experiment with
different aesthetics and subject matters,
slowly refining each element till I find one on
which to base a composition. Some concepts
originate from random survey shots, others
are drawn from more deliberate, concentrated
sessions. Compositional elements for each
painting are fastidiously considered but not
deliberately choreographed.
ConversationwithNathan Taylor
8 9
Digital photography has enabled me to keep
an extensive visual diary, documenting years
of environments and objects, meticulously
tracking the evolution of my ideas. This
process of recording and archiving my ideas
has enabled me to pursue my concepts at a
concentrated level.
You’re both a painter and a photographer:
is there a difference between composing
a painting and composing a photograph?
Photography had always been secondary to
my painting and was initially just a tool. It
wasn’t until I started exhibiting photographs
that I began to use the camera differently.
Conceptually, photography is the medium
that helps me develop my core concepts and
painting is the vehicle I use to depict and
share those ideas.
The viewer interprets a painting differently
to a photograph because the process of
painting retains the artist’s hand through their
craft and the relationship built between the
artist and their work. This trace of the artist
is intriguing to the viewer and integral to
painting.
In contrast, photography has a level of
anonymity that can empower the viewer by
allowing them to relate an image more closely
to their own reality. The contrast between
painting and photography is an interesting
way for me to present similar subject matter
that can be interpreted in different ways.
What are your work habits like?
A typical day starts early - I’m in the studio
by 7.30am and usually leave ten hours
later: six days on, one day off. This labour-
intensive regime becomes part of my work’s
‘performance’ - ceremonial and meditative.
My work habits have become very ritualised.
They are structured around the organised and
predetermined approach of my technique. I
wouldn’t quite call the process obsessive but
it’s definitely methodical and meticulous.
This disciplined approach is integral for
me to ensure I meet my high level of self-
expectation. I’m also always trying to push
my practice, tackling harder subjects in more
complicated compositions. By doing so I’m
continually learning new ways of working:
helping to tune my ability to communicate
ideas effectively.
8 9
Digital photography has enabled me to keep
an extensive visual diary, documenting years
of environments and objects, meticulously
tracking the evolution of my ideas. This
process of recording and archiving my ideas
has enabled me to pursue my concepts at a
concentrated level.
You’re both a painter and a photographer:
is there a difference between composing
a painting and composing a photograph?
Photography had always been secondary to
my painting and was initially just a tool. It
wasn’t until I started exhibiting photographs
that I began to use the camera differently.
Conceptually, photography is the medium
that helps me develop my core concepts and
painting is the vehicle I use to depict and
share those ideas.
The viewer interprets a painting differently
to a photograph because the process of
painting retains the artist’s hand through their
craft and the relationship built between the
artist and their work. This trace of the artist
is intriguing to the viewer and integral to
painting.
In contrast, photography has a level of
anonymity that can empower the viewer by
allowing them to relate an image more closely
to their own reality. The contrast between
painting and photography is an interesting
way for me to present similar subject matter
that can be interpreted in different ways.
What are your work habits like?
A typical day starts early - I’m in the studio
by 7.30am and usually leave ten hours
later: six days on, one day off. This labour-
intensive regime becomes part of my work’s
‘performance’ - ceremonial and meditative.
My work habits have become very ritualised.
They are structured around the organised and
predetermined approach of my technique. I
wouldn’t quite call the process obsessive but
it’s definitely methodical and meticulous.
This disciplined approach is integral for
me to ensure I meet my high level of self-
expectation. I’m also always trying to push
my practice, tackling harder subjects in more
complicated compositions. By doing so I’m
continually learning new ways of working:
helping to tune my ability to communicate
ideas effectively.
10 11
How long does it usually take to complete
a painting and how do you know when
you’ve painted the final stroke?
On average each work consumes between six
to eight weeks of my time. The hours, days
and months invested in each piece are about
breaking down the image to its bare elements:
understanding and valuing every facet of its
visual composition. This results in a process
of micro-painting: deconstruction, abstracting
each element and then rebuilding. The
painting is finished after this ritual is complete
and the image restored. The process is akin
to that of doing a jigsaw puzzle: placing in the
final piece and seeing the image for the first
time.
This invested relationship with each piece is
important. My concentrated admiration for
every minute detail of the most mundane
things, together with my studio habits and
painting techniques, help me to come to
terms with the complexity and saturation of
visual information in everyday life.
How long do you leave between finishing one
painting and starting the next?
Time between paintings is relatively short: just
a few days. This is usually spent evaluating
the piece just completed and deciding on
the next challenge. As each body of work
evolves, the time spent between paintings
shortens and compositional decisions usually
become harder. Not committing to a new
piece until I have completed the last means
that the body of work develops naturally
and sympathetically to the works already
completed.
The act of creating, from concept to execution,
becomes the extent of my relationship with
the work. On completion, I feel the work
should exist for the viewer - it can now
develop a new relationship with someone
else. The ability to share my ideas and see
my work find a new home is an important and
enjoyable part the creative process.
Self portrait II
2002
Pastel on paper
195 x 130 cm
10 11
How long does it usually take to complete
a painting and how do you know when
you’ve painted the final stroke?
On average each work consumes between six
to eight weeks of my time. The hours, days
and months invested in each piece are about
breaking down the image to its bare elements:
understanding and valuing every facet of its
visual composition. This results in a process
of micro-painting: deconstruction, abstracting
each element and then rebuilding. The
painting is finished after this ritual is complete
and the image restored. The process is akin
to that of doing a jigsaw puzzle: placing in the
final piece and seeing the image for the first
time.
This invested relationship with each piece is
important. My concentrated admiration for
every minute detail of the most mundane
things, together with my studio habits and
painting techniques, help me to come to
terms with the complexity and saturation of
visual information in everyday life.
How long do you leave between finishing one
painting and starting the next?
Time between paintings is relatively short: just
a few days. This is usually spent evaluating
the piece just completed and deciding on
the next challenge. As each body of work
evolves, the time spent between paintings
shortens and compositional decisions usually
become harder. Not committing to a new
piece until I have completed the last means
that the body of work develops naturally
and sympathetically to the works already
completed.
The act of creating, from concept to execution,
becomes the extent of my relationship with
the work. On completion, I feel the work
should exist for the viewer - it can now
develop a new relationship with someone
else. The ability to share my ideas and see
my work find a new home is an important and
enjoyable part the creative process.
Self portrait II
2002
Pastel on paper
195 x 130 cm
12 13
How and when do you decide on a
work’s title?
Titling a work is one of the final steps. Some
works scream their titles at me; for others
I have to tease them out. I like titles to be
intriguing and not too leading - making
the viewer ask more questions rather than
providing an answer.
My work explores the language of the urban
environment and I use idioms and colloquial
snippets as titles in the same fashion. Just
as my paintings attempt to reinterpret the
familiar, I hope that by using common sayings
for titles I will encourage people to re-
evaluate the meaning and use of the modern
vernacular.
Did your time overseas result in any changes
in your painting, either while you were there
or after you returned to Australia?
My short but extensive trip overseas was
very pivotal in numerous ways, but most
importantly in how I saw my practice in
a broader global context. I conducted a
research project as part of a Marten Bequest
Travelling Scholarship. This took me to New
York and various European cities. The core of
this project was to absorb art at its source. It
was an overwhelmingly humbling experience
that forced a re-evaluation my own artistic
position, triggered a fresh drive of artistic
pursuits and, ultimately, resulted in greater
artistic maturity.
During my trip I also took the opportunity
to research each environment at a domestic
level by completing a wide photographic
survey. This process was important in
providing an objective perspective of our
own urban landscape and gaining a greater
understanding of what is unique and central
to the Australian aesthetic. Educating
myself in this way has also helped me further
understand how an environment and the way
we treat it has influence on people and their
culture.
Why do you prefer to draw portraits rather
than to paint them?
There is a distinctive intimacy with figurative
work especially portraiture. I hope to share
my connection with my subjects through my
interpretation of their personality and visual
presence. As my painting methods became
more premeditated, I started to feel that they
might restrict the more personal qualities
required by portraits. Drawing has immediacy
and this ultimately results in a more organic
and instinctive way of working. I have
attempted to make my drawings less laboured
in appearance compared with my painting,
emphasising the trace of my own hand.
Who are your artistic influences?
Earlier on artistic influences stemmed from
social realist painters and their depictions of
everyday life coupled with interpretations of
political and social issues of their time. Later
influences were from artists who criticised
advertising’s cultural role and how the media
interpreted and influenced society. Key
influential figures include Eric Fischl, David
Hockney, James Rosenquist and Gerhard
Richter. More obvious artistic influences
are Ralph Goings, Richard Estes and Robert
Bechtle. My admiration for the original
Photorealists centres round their unique
ability to create icons from the everyday
objects of conventional America. Through
an unpretentious and celebratory vision
they restored faith and identity in a culture
addicted to capitalism.
Recent artistic influences gravitate more
towards photographers than painters. An
example of this is William Eggleston’s work.
His unique aesthetic captures complexity
and beauty in the mundane and produces
a very powerful, sometimes cutting, social
commentary. I admire how his snapshot
aesthetic captures the relentless anxiety of
the present.
12 13
How and when do you decide on a
work’s title?
Titling a work is one of the final steps. Some
works scream their titles at me; for others
I have to tease them out. I like titles to be
intriguing and not too leading - making
the viewer ask more questions rather than
providing an answer.
My work explores the language of the urban
environment and I use idioms and colloquial
snippets as titles in the same fashion. Just
as my paintings attempt to reinterpret the
familiar, I hope that by using common sayings
for titles I will encourage people to re-
evaluate the meaning and use of the modern
vernacular.
Did your time overseas result in any changes
in your painting, either while you were there
or after you returned to Australia?
My short but extensive trip overseas was
very pivotal in numerous ways, but most
importantly in how I saw my practice in
a broader global context. I conducted a
research project as part of a Marten Bequest
Travelling Scholarship. This took me to New
York and various European cities. The core of
this project was to absorb art at its source. It
was an overwhelmingly humbling experience
that forced a re-evaluation my own artistic
position, triggered a fresh drive of artistic
pursuits and, ultimately, resulted in greater
artistic maturity.
During my trip I also took the opportunity
to research each environment at a domestic
level by completing a wide photographic
survey. This process was important in
providing an objective perspective of our
own urban landscape and gaining a greater
understanding of what is unique and central
to the Australian aesthetic. Educating
myself in this way has also helped me further
understand how an environment and the way
we treat it has influence on people and their
culture.
Why do you prefer to draw portraits rather
than to paint them?
There is a distinctive intimacy with figurative
work especially portraiture. I hope to share
my connection with my subjects through my
interpretation of their personality and visual
presence. As my painting methods became
more premeditated, I started to feel that they
might restrict the more personal qualities
required by portraits. Drawing has immediacy
and this ultimately results in a more organic
and instinctive way of working. I have
attempted to make my drawings less laboured
in appearance compared with my painting,
emphasising the trace of my own hand.
Who are your artistic influences?
Earlier on artistic influences stemmed from
social realist painters and their depictions of
everyday life coupled with interpretations of
political and social issues of their time. Later
influences were from artists who criticised
advertising’s cultural role and how the media
interpreted and influenced society. Key
influential figures include Eric Fischl, David
Hockney, James Rosenquist and Gerhard
Richter. More obvious artistic influences
are Ralph Goings, Richard Estes and Robert
Bechtle. My admiration for the original
Photorealists centres round their unique
ability to create icons from the everyday
objects of conventional America. Through
an unpretentious and celebratory vision
they restored faith and identity in a culture
addicted to capitalism.
Recent artistic influences gravitate more
towards photographers than painters. An
example of this is William Eggleston’s work.
His unique aesthetic captures complexity
and beauty in the mundane and produces
a very powerful, sometimes cutting, social
commentary. I admire how his snapshot
aesthetic captures the relentless anxiety of
the present.
14 15
The critic John Russell Taylor distinguishes
between the Photorealist movement that
primarily evolved in 1960s America and today’s
British Exactitude painters. Do you think there is
an Australian Hyperrealist movement and if so,
which other artists would you say are part of it?
As Australian art continues to change, I
believe general banners don’t accurately
reflect the crossovers and complexity of
current contemporary art practices. The
blurred lines that stretch between these
practices are what create such a fulfilling,
dynamic and interactive art scene in Australia.
There is definitely a strong presence of
realism in contemporary Australian painting.
This universal language is being cleverly
applied to remark on current social and
political issues in Australia. However, these
artists have very different, distinctive and
contemporary interpretations of realism in
their work. This variance gives strength to
a personal vision with the accessibility of
a comprehensible style. I believe current
important contemporary realists include Juan
Ford, Sam Jinks, Victoria Reichelt, Jackson
Slattery and Sam Leach.
All these artists continue to influence me by
having great strength of technique paralleled
with engaging and intelligent concepts.
If you had to choose just one of your works to
be represented in a public collection, which one
would it be and why?
It would probably be Dead to the world, 2010
[cover illustration and page 123]. This piece
proved to be pivotal to the future direction of
my practice, changing the overriding themes
of subsequent paintings. The personal
challenges overcome during this painting
helped me to readdress my compositional
strategies and overall aesthetic tone. This
shift in theme has taken my work towards a
more post-consumption focus, exploring how
discarded objects represent us socially and
mould our modern culture.
14 15
The critic John Russell Taylor distinguishes
between the Photorealist movement that
primarily evolved in 1960s America and today’s
British Exactitude painters. Do you think there is
an Australian Hyperrealist movement and if so,
which other artists would you say are part of it?
As Australian art continues to change, I
believe general banners don’t accurately
reflect the crossovers and complexity of
current contemporary art practices. The
blurred lines that stretch between these
practices are what create such a fulfilling,
dynamic and interactive art scene in Australia.
There is definitely a strong presence of
realism in contemporary Australian painting.
This universal language is being cleverly
applied to remark on current social and
political issues in Australia. However, these
artists have very different, distinctive and
contemporary interpretations of realism in
their work. This variance gives strength to
a personal vision with the accessibility of
a comprehensible style. I believe current
important contemporary realists include Juan
Ford, Sam Jinks, Victoria Reichelt, Jackson
Slattery and Sam Leach.
All these artists continue to influence me by
having great strength of technique paralleled
with engaging and intelligent concepts.
If you had to choose just one of your works to
be represented in a public collection, which one
would it be and why?
It would probably be Dead to the world, 2010
[cover illustration and page 123]. This piece
proved to be pivotal to the future direction of
my practice, changing the overriding themes
of subsequent paintings. The personal
challenges overcome during this painting
helped me to readdress my compositional
strategies and overall aesthetic tone. This
shift in theme has taken my work towards a
more post-consumption focus, exploring how
discarded objects represent us socially and
mould our modern culture.
16 17
The artist Clive Head has said of Hyperrealism,
“This is not an art that raises issues but finds a
universal voice for a personal vision.” Do you
agree and how do you see your role as an artist
now and in the future?
Hyperrealism definitely has a universal
voice and a language that is accessible
and unpretentious, but I believe that it
is misleading to suggest that it lacks the
capacity to raise unique and challenging
issues that have no political or social muscle.
The technical pursuit of a realist painter is
the vehicle; the strength of concept is raised
through a unique interpretation of subject
matter. I think contemporary hyperrealists
no longer restrict their creative direction to
documentation.
All realists use familiar objects and
environments as compositional tools.
However each interpretation is unique and
innovative. I believe artists are now adopting
the challenge of using realism beyond the
parameters of exclusively prompting a re-
evaluation of our environment.
I want to offer a challenge through my work
and not just a personal vision. This relies, in
part, on the viewer wanting to engage with the
work at this level. As I continue to develop
my practice I hope to learn new and more
confident ways of communicating my ideas.
Nathan Taylor spoke to Emily Cloney
One of the best ways to form an overview
of an artist’s life and work is to make
a studio visit. Every artist creates their
own methodology in their own unique
surroundings. When I was a young art student
my favourite book in the art school library
was Alexander Liberman’s The Artist in His
Studio1. At that time it only existed as a small,
black and white publication and so the vibrant
colours and varied surroundings of Picasso,
Chagall, and Matisse were lost in a grainy
fuzz of black and white. Many years later,
to my joy, they reissued it in a large format,
full colour edition2 that I still enjoy opening
at random and studying. Here is Kandinsky
in a neatly ordered room surrounded by his
wonderful abstractions. There is Fernand
Léger standing, with the rough demeanour
of a peasant farmer, in front of mural-sized
canvases of female acrobats and cone-hatted
clowns. And Giacometti, chain-smoking while
working though the night in his tiny studio.
In 1985 broadcaster Melvyn Bragg made one
of the most celebrated studio visits to the
cramped London quarters of Francis Bacon for
The South Bank Show3. The room is small and
messy as if every flat surface, horizontal or
vertical, is the artist’s palette. But what great
paintings grew from this tiny space.
Nathan Taylor:An Overviewfrom the Studio
When I flew to Hobart recently to visit Nathan
Taylor’s studio, I already knew his work well
from gallery and museum visits and from
reproductions. But I was keen to see where it
was created. And how it was created. I was
keen to meet the artist himself.
I found the white door next to the downtown
Hobart car rental office I’d been told to look
out for. The old Deco building was once an
ambulance call centre but is now the house
and studio of Wayne Brookes, Nathan’s
friend, studio landlord and former high school
teacher.
We navigate our way though Wayne’s world
of black rooms full of thousands of DVDs
and videos, of narrow corridors hung with
paintings of baroque interiors and lined with
book after book on art and artists.
1A. Liberman with a forward by James Thrall Soby, The Artist in his Studio, (Thames and Hudson, London, 1960) [a rather politically incorrect title, since Sonia Delauney, Natalie Gontcharova, and other great women artists appear amidst this mostly male pantheon]
2A. Liberman, The Artist in his Studio, (Thames and Hudson, London, rev. edn 1988)
3The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg with Francis Bacon (ITV, 9 June 1985)
16 17
The artist Clive Head has said of Hyperrealism,
“This is not an art that raises issues but finds a
universal voice for a personal vision.” Do you
agree and how do you see your role as an artist
now and in the future?
Hyperrealism definitely has a universal
voice and a language that is accessible
and unpretentious, but I believe that it
is misleading to suggest that it lacks the
capacity to raise unique and challenging
issues that have no political or social muscle.
The technical pursuit of a realist painter is
the vehicle; the strength of concept is raised
through a unique interpretation of subject
matter. I think contemporary hyperrealists
no longer restrict their creative direction to
documentation.
All realists use familiar objects and
environments as compositional tools.
However each interpretation is unique and
innovative. I believe artists are now adopting
the challenge of using realism beyond the
parameters of exclusively prompting a re-
evaluation of our environment.
I want to offer a challenge through my work
and not just a personal vision. This relies, in
part, on the viewer wanting to engage with the
work at this level. As I continue to develop
my practice I hope to learn new and more
confident ways of communicating my ideas.
Nathan Taylor spoke to Emily Cloney
One of the best ways to form an overview
of an artist’s life and work is to make
a studio visit. Every artist creates their
own methodology in their own unique
surroundings. When I was a young art student
my favourite book in the art school library
was Alexander Liberman’s The Artist in His
Studio1. At that time it only existed as a small,
black and white publication and so the vibrant
colours and varied surroundings of Picasso,
Chagall, and Matisse were lost in a grainy
fuzz of black and white. Many years later,
to my joy, they reissued it in a large format,
full colour edition2 that I still enjoy opening
at random and studying. Here is Kandinsky
in a neatly ordered room surrounded by his
wonderful abstractions. There is Fernand
Léger standing, with the rough demeanour
of a peasant farmer, in front of mural-sized
canvases of female acrobats and cone-hatted
clowns. And Giacometti, chain-smoking while
working though the night in his tiny studio.
In 1985 broadcaster Melvyn Bragg made one
of the most celebrated studio visits to the
cramped London quarters of Francis Bacon for
The South Bank Show3. The room is small and
messy as if every flat surface, horizontal or
vertical, is the artist’s palette. But what great
paintings grew from this tiny space.
Nathan Taylor:An Overviewfrom the Studio
When I flew to Hobart recently to visit Nathan
Taylor’s studio, I already knew his work well
from gallery and museum visits and from
reproductions. But I was keen to see where it
was created. And how it was created. I was
keen to meet the artist himself.
I found the white door next to the downtown
Hobart car rental office I’d been told to look
out for. The old Deco building was once an
ambulance call centre but is now the house
and studio of Wayne Brookes, Nathan’s
friend, studio landlord and former high school
teacher.
We navigate our way though Wayne’s world
of black rooms full of thousands of DVDs
and videos, of narrow corridors hung with
paintings of baroque interiors and lined with
book after book on art and artists.
1A. Liberman with a forward by James Thrall Soby, The Artist in his Studio, (Thames and Hudson, London, 1960) [a rather politically incorrect title, since Sonia Delauney, Natalie Gontcharova, and other great women artists appear amidst this mostly male pantheon]
2A. Liberman, The Artist in his Studio, (Thames and Hudson, London, rev. edn 1988)
3The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg with Francis Bacon (ITV, 9 June 1985)
18 19
And then we come to it. A small room off the
main corridor. Plastic insulates the windows
yet it still seems to be full of light. Jazz music
is playing in the background. A two bar heater
raises the temperature to a very pleasant level.
Nathan has kindly bought me a coffee and
arranged his work for me to view. Some of his
paintings rest on easels, others are wrapped in
polythene. On one wall research photographs
have been printed to an amazingly high
quality from a small, commercial printer that
sits beneath the window. Hanging above us
are two large drawings from one of his earlier
series. We talk about his upbringing, his time
at the art school in Hobart and about his
family. His father now makes the stretcher
boards that he works on. These are small in
scale, domestically speaking, but deliberately
cinematic in their dimensions. They give us a
wide-screen view of the flotsam and jetsam of
everyday life.
I’ve arrived at a very busy time in his personal
life. His second child has just been born and
his partner Jane broke her leg two days before
the birth. There have been some sleep-
interrupted nights, but he is now returning to
his favoured routine of ten hour days in the
studio.
“How long,” I ask, “does each painting take to
complete?”
“Usually about two months, if I work away at a
steady pace, six days a week.”
I had heard that there is a waiting list of
eighteen people wanting to buy work. This is
not surprising if you produce between six and
eight paintings in a year.
I was keen to see the tools of his trade. On
visits to Callum Innes’s studio in Scotland and
Jon Cattapan’s in Melbourne I noticed how
dozens of brushes of all shapes and sizes –
some thin and squirrel-haired, others flat as a
flounder for making broad-brush statements
– hung from the walls or were laid out neatly
on tables. Nathan’s tools were much more
minimal.
He took me across to the wooden table by
the window where he paints all his works
flat against its surface. “I use these,” he said,
producing one tiny brush cut at a diagonal
angle and not much bigger than might be
used to apply cosmetic eye-liner. An equally
small, white foam roller, no broader than a
matchbox, sat alongside it.
18 19
And then we come to it. A small room off the
main corridor. Plastic insulates the windows
yet it still seems to be full of light. Jazz music
is playing in the background. A two bar heater
raises the temperature to a very pleasant level.
Nathan has kindly bought me a coffee and
arranged his work for me to view. Some of his
paintings rest on easels, others are wrapped in
polythene. On one wall research photographs
have been printed to an amazingly high
quality from a small, commercial printer that
sits beneath the window. Hanging above us
are two large drawings from one of his earlier
series. We talk about his upbringing, his time
at the art school in Hobart and about his
family. His father now makes the stretcher
boards that he works on. These are small in
scale, domestically speaking, but deliberately
cinematic in their dimensions. They give us a
wide-screen view of the flotsam and jetsam of
everyday life.
I’ve arrived at a very busy time in his personal
life. His second child has just been born and
his partner Jane broke her leg two days before
the birth. There have been some sleep-
interrupted nights, but he is now returning to
his favoured routine of ten hour days in the
studio.
“How long,” I ask, “does each painting take to
complete?”
“Usually about two months, if I work away at a
steady pace, six days a week.”
I had heard that there is a waiting list of
eighteen people wanting to buy work. This is
not surprising if you produce between six and
eight paintings in a year.
I was keen to see the tools of his trade. On
visits to Callum Innes’s studio in Scotland and
Jon Cattapan’s in Melbourne I noticed how
dozens of brushes of all shapes and sizes –
some thin and squirrel-haired, others flat as a
flounder for making broad-brush statements
– hung from the walls or were laid out neatly
on tables. Nathan’s tools were much more
minimal.
He took me across to the wooden table by
the window where he paints all his works
flat against its surface. “I use these,” he said,
producing one tiny brush cut at a diagonal
angle and not much bigger than might be
used to apply cosmetic eye-liner. An equally
small, white foam roller, no broader than a
matchbox, sat alongside it.
20 21
With this pair of implements and the use
of acrylic paint and masking tape, Nathan
recreates human vision more accurately, and
far more slowly, than a camera.
But technique is only one half of the equation.
Balancing the final result is the all important
“content” of the work and the way it is framed
compositionally.
Much of our conversation hinges on ideas
of sustainability and conservation. We
speak about consumerism and its careless
handmaiden, waste. The photographs which
he takes, and which he now selects and has
blown up as artworks in their own right (often
bigger than the paintings) capture overflowing
rubbish bins with Styrofoam cups jutting out
at odd angles; orange peel lying in a gutter;
cigarette butts in an ashtray; crushed beer
cans; and an empty cardboard toilet roll
tube still in its holder. In the background the
skies are often blue, the grass is green and
manicured, and the traces of pleasure and
consumption are evident everywhere.
There is an honesty to his work that reflects
his concerns for the natural and manmade
environment. Yet he is aware of dichotomies.
He enjoys the universality of Hyperrealism
but insists it must be about more than just
documentation. Technical skills are only as
useful as the concepts and ideas that are
grafted on to them.
In his conversation with Emily Cloney [pages
7-15], Taylor remarks how ‘the hours, days
and months invested in each piece are
about breaking down the image to its bare
elements’. A key factor in this has been the
amazing advances in digital photography
which allow him to keep a huge archive of
his visual observations over the years with as
many as one hundred individual photographs
informing any one painting.
“At first it was mostly about the objects that
I was painting,” he says. “But then it became
more about the social responsibility of the
people who used, and then discarded, those
objects. I’m also interested in the brand
loyalties that people have. I mean, I don’t drink
fizzy drinks myself and rarely eat chocolate or
any of that stuff, but I notice how some people
will only drink Pepsi and others only Coke. It
becomes like a tribal thing.”
Nathan Taylor admires the work of many
other artists, mostly through seeing their
work in reproduction. There were, of course,
the original Photorealists – especially Robert
Bechtle, Ralph Goings, and Richard Estes
– but then also a range of Pop artists such
as James Rosenquist and David Hockney.
The multi-talented and highly experimental
Gerhard Richter was important to him, as was
the figurative (but contrastingly, very loosely
figurative) Eric Fischl.
As he developed his own very individual
technique, it was the lack of pretension that
he liked about the Photorealists. He admired
their ability to take a culture “addicted to
capitalism” and make an anti-capitalist
statement through using the everyday objects
of late 20th century life.
Many of these iconic works you never fully
understand until you see them “in the flesh”
and can get a sense of their physicality
and scale. This desire to “observe art at its
source” took him overseas to America and
Europe thanks to a Marten Bequest Travelling
Scholarship. The results of this extensive and
concentrated research trip are still feeding
into his work.
At home in Australia, he has a great respect
for a number of contemporary realist artists
including Juan Ford, Sam Jinks, Victoria
Reichelt, Jackson Slattery and Sam Leach.
Collectively they are a formidable crew, I
reflect, as I step back out into the reality of
Hobart’s CBD. They could form the core of a
very exciting exhibition.
Peter Hill
20 21
With this pair of implements and the use
of acrylic paint and masking tape, Nathan
recreates human vision more accurately, and
far more slowly, than a camera.
But technique is only one half of the equation.
Balancing the final result is the all important
“content” of the work and the way it is framed
compositionally.
Much of our conversation hinges on ideas
of sustainability and conservation. We
speak about consumerism and its careless
handmaiden, waste. The photographs which
he takes, and which he now selects and has
blown up as artworks in their own right (often
bigger than the paintings) capture overflowing
rubbish bins with Styrofoam cups jutting out
at odd angles; orange peel lying in a gutter;
cigarette butts in an ashtray; crushed beer
cans; and an empty cardboard toilet roll
tube still in its holder. In the background the
skies are often blue, the grass is green and
manicured, and the traces of pleasure and
consumption are evident everywhere.
There is an honesty to his work that reflects
his concerns for the natural and manmade
environment. Yet he is aware of dichotomies.
He enjoys the universality of Hyperrealism
but insists it must be about more than just
documentation. Technical skills are only as
useful as the concepts and ideas that are
grafted on to them.
In his conversation with Emily Cloney [pages
7-15], Taylor remarks how ‘the hours, days
and months invested in each piece are
about breaking down the image to its bare
elements’. A key factor in this has been the
amazing advances in digital photography
which allow him to keep a huge archive of
his visual observations over the years with as
many as one hundred individual photographs
informing any one painting.
“At first it was mostly about the objects that
I was painting,” he says. “But then it became
more about the social responsibility of the
people who used, and then discarded, those
objects. I’m also interested in the brand
loyalties that people have. I mean, I don’t drink
fizzy drinks myself and rarely eat chocolate or
any of that stuff, but I notice how some people
will only drink Pepsi and others only Coke. It
becomes like a tribal thing.”
Nathan Taylor admires the work of many
other artists, mostly through seeing their
work in reproduction. There were, of course,
the original Photorealists – especially Robert
Bechtle, Ralph Goings, and Richard Estes
– but then also a range of Pop artists such
as James Rosenquist and David Hockney.
The multi-talented and highly experimental
Gerhard Richter was important to him, as was
the figurative (but contrastingly, very loosely
figurative) Eric Fischl.
As he developed his own very individual
technique, it was the lack of pretension that
he liked about the Photorealists. He admired
their ability to take a culture “addicted to
capitalism” and make an anti-capitalist
statement through using the everyday objects
of late 20th century life.
Many of these iconic works you never fully
understand until you see them “in the flesh”
and can get a sense of their physicality
and scale. This desire to “observe art at its
source” took him overseas to America and
Europe thanks to a Marten Bequest Travelling
Scholarship. The results of this extensive and
concentrated research trip are still feeding
into his work.
At home in Australia, he has a great respect
for a number of contemporary realist artists
including Juan Ford, Sam Jinks, Victoria
Reichelt, Jackson Slattery and Sam Leach.
Collectively they are a formidable crew, I
reflect, as I step back out into the reality of
Hobart’s CBD. They could form the core of a
very exciting exhibition.
Peter Hill
EARLY WORK2001 - 2004
EARLY WORK2001 - 2004
24 25
These 2001 works explore aspects of the
everyday. Each image reflects on iconic
symbols of the Australian suburban makeup,
exploring the clichés of our national identity.
Each painting has a subtle narrative coaxed
though familiar symbols and objects.
Aesthetically each work offers an idealised
outlook through a saturated palette and
a nostalgic perspective. The work is
deliberately unchallenging and, at its surface,
naively optimistic. An effortless existence
is offered through strategies similar to that
adopted by advertising. Our celebrated
collective identity begins to appear shallow
where material possessions become iconic
and laziness rewarding.
Following on from objects that represent
our collective identity, my 2003 and 2004
work looks more closely at our domestic
environment and how objects dictate our
routines. A similar narrative is consistent
through the work, but a more personalised
touch is explored through a less idealised
aesthetic. A softer realism starts to creep
through with suggestions of wear, rust,
erosion and grime. There is still a sense of
familiarity but also the revealing of a beauty
trapped within the mundane. Nostalgia
is in turn replaced with narrative and the
experience becomes more personalised.
Focus shifts from the subject matter’s social
role to what is more immediate and personally
relevant.
Nathan Taylor
One more swing
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
24 25
These 2001 works explore aspects of the
everyday. Each image reflects on iconic
symbols of the Australian suburban makeup,
exploring the clichés of our national identity.
Each painting has a subtle narrative coaxed
though familiar symbols and objects.
Aesthetically each work offers an idealised
outlook through a saturated palette and
a nostalgic perspective. The work is
deliberately unchallenging and, at its surface,
naively optimistic. An effortless existence
is offered through strategies similar to that
adopted by advertising. Our celebrated
collective identity begins to appear shallow
where material possessions become iconic
and laziness rewarding.
Following on from objects that represent
our collective identity, my 2003 and 2004
work looks more closely at our domestic
environment and how objects dictate our
routines. A similar narrative is consistent
through the work, but a more personalised
touch is explored through a less idealised
aesthetic. A softer realism starts to creep
through with suggestions of wear, rust,
erosion and grime. There is still a sense of
familiarity but also the revealing of a beauty
trapped within the mundane. Nostalgia
is in turn replaced with narrative and the
experience becomes more personalised.
Focus shifts from the subject matter’s social
role to what is more immediate and personally
relevant.
Nathan Taylor
One more swing
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
26 27
Queen’s birthday
celebration
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
Victa trouble
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
26 27
Queen’s birthday
celebration
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
Victa trouble
2001
Acrylic on board
100 x 100 cm
28 29
Crease
2002
Acrylic on canvas board
45 x 35 cm
Kids stay free
2003
Acrylic on board
55 x 100 cm
28 29
Crease
2002
Acrylic on canvas board
45 x 35 cm
Kids stay free
2003
Acrylic on board
55 x 100 cm
30 31
Be my guest
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Business and pleasure
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
30 31
Be my guest
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Business and pleasure
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
32 33
Rest assured
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 90 cm
Home and hosed
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
32 33
Rest assured
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 90 cm
Home and hosed
2003
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
34 35
This moment still
2004
Acrylic on board
60 x 110 cm
My pleasure
2004
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
34 35
This moment still
2004
Acrylic on board
60 x 110 cm
My pleasure
2004
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
36 37
Wish you were here
2004
Acrylic on board
60 x 110 cm
Sticks and stones
2004
Acrylic on board
80 x 130 cm
36 37
Wish you were here
2004
Acrylic on board
60 x 110 cm
Sticks and stones
2004
Acrylic on board
80 x 130 cm
CONCRETE POETICS2005
CONCRETE POETICS2005
40 41
The objects that clutter our urban
environment are slowly worn down by a
repetitious social rhythm. Their subtle
presence becomes second nature yet they
are at the core of dictating social norms.
Each of these paintings looks at various
social addictions or rituals. A petrol bowser
standing defiant after years of religious
use; a shopping trolley left abandoned and
exhausted; a pub urinal that relentlessly drips
and never sleeps.
All these objects are part of a consumption-
based society, passively serving when
required. We remain oblivious to their
importance and to our dependence on them
until they are taken away.
A lot of these paintings are influenced by
issues addressed in the media, such as oil
ownership in Iraq, obesity, problem gambling
and an inflated real estate market.
Nathan Taylor
In your best interests
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
40 41
The objects that clutter our urban
environment are slowly worn down by a
repetitious social rhythm. Their subtle
presence becomes second nature yet they
are at the core of dictating social norms.
Each of these paintings looks at various
social addictions or rituals. A petrol bowser
standing defiant after years of religious
use; a shopping trolley left abandoned and
exhausted; a pub urinal that relentlessly drips
and never sleeps.
All these objects are part of a consumption-
based society, passively serving when
required. We remain oblivious to their
importance and to our dependence on them
until they are taken away.
A lot of these paintings are influenced by
issues addressed in the media, such as oil
ownership in Iraq, obesity, problem gambling
and an inflated real estate market.
Nathan Taylor
In your best interests
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
42 43
Nathan Taylor’s paintings seduce the viewer.
Direct quotation from life is articulated
through an acute understanding of pictorial
grammar and punctuation releasing ‘music’
from mundane forms. In his seemingly ‘found’
compositions there is something akin to the
‘concrete poetry’ practised by E.E. Cummings
and Ezra Pound. Like them, Taylor lifts tired
signifiers of the domestic into a more rarefied
realm through his compositions. The rhythm
and rhyme of everyday objects create ballad-
like structures of complex but restrained
emotion - or as the artist suggests - of the
‘sensual and nostalgic’. This is the first stage
of the romance.
Secondly, this ‘melody’ of the work is also an
underlying pulse, a foot-tapping metre that
acts as a fluid counterpoint to the rigid, dense
objects depicted. Dumb, mute objects, often
representative of a certain age or era, radiate
their significance as the building blocks of the
‘civilised’ world we inhabit. Yet these are not
dusty relics in an op shop or the discarded
citizens of the refuse tip but rather they have
been worn smooth by use, patinated by the
attentions of routine. They are pre-loved and
we, as viewers, are invited to love them too.
Taylor’s act of painting functions at yet
another level of this devotional, organicising,
entropic – and perhaps even erotic - touch.
His works are not a direct cast or ‘death-
mask’ of the objects as in a Barthes’ reading
of photography. Contours are modelled
patiently yet are very slightly more blurred;
colours and tones are translated authentically
but subtly shifted into closer harmonies and
nearer relationships. Through their ‘use’ by
the painter’s eye the objects are minimally
reduced and worn-down.
One has the feeling that Taylor is drawn to a
certain order of urban object and he invites
us to fill them through contemplation with
projected meaning. They are often literally
empty (or only temporarily full) awaiting our
investment. Shopping trolleys and irons, petrol
pumps and syrup-dispensers – each functions,
in part, as a vehicle or vessel for our displaced
drives (in a Freudian sense) as well as for our
fragile concept of society.
As Taylor acknowledges, “I think that looking
closer at ourselves on a domestic level helps
create a greater awareness at a universal one”.
Concrete Poetics
With friends like these
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
42 43
Nathan Taylor’s paintings seduce the viewer.
Direct quotation from life is articulated
through an acute understanding of pictorial
grammar and punctuation releasing ‘music’
from mundane forms. In his seemingly ‘found’
compositions there is something akin to the
‘concrete poetry’ practised by E.E. Cummings
and Ezra Pound. Like them, Taylor lifts tired
signifiers of the domestic into a more rarefied
realm through his compositions. The rhythm
and rhyme of everyday objects create ballad-
like structures of complex but restrained
emotion - or as the artist suggests - of the
‘sensual and nostalgic’. This is the first stage
of the romance.
Secondly, this ‘melody’ of the work is also an
underlying pulse, a foot-tapping metre that
acts as a fluid counterpoint to the rigid, dense
objects depicted. Dumb, mute objects, often
representative of a certain age or era, radiate
their significance as the building blocks of the
‘civilised’ world we inhabit. Yet these are not
dusty relics in an op shop or the discarded
citizens of the refuse tip but rather they have
been worn smooth by use, patinated by the
attentions of routine. They are pre-loved and
we, as viewers, are invited to love them too.
Taylor’s act of painting functions at yet
another level of this devotional, organicising,
entropic – and perhaps even erotic - touch.
His works are not a direct cast or ‘death-
mask’ of the objects as in a Barthes’ reading
of photography. Contours are modelled
patiently yet are very slightly more blurred;
colours and tones are translated authentically
but subtly shifted into closer harmonies and
nearer relationships. Through their ‘use’ by
the painter’s eye the objects are minimally
reduced and worn-down.
One has the feeling that Taylor is drawn to a
certain order of urban object and he invites
us to fill them through contemplation with
projected meaning. They are often literally
empty (or only temporarily full) awaiting our
investment. Shopping trolleys and irons, petrol
pumps and syrup-dispensers – each functions,
in part, as a vehicle or vessel for our displaced
drives (in a Freudian sense) as well as for our
fragile concept of society.
As Taylor acknowledges, “I think that looking
closer at ourselves on a domestic level helps
create a greater awareness at a universal one”.
Concrete Poetics
With friends like these
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
44 45
His titles - With friends like these; One size fits
all - also implicitly refer to this wider cultural
spectrum but with the black-tinged humour
of Ed Ruscha. However, unlike the American,
there is perspicacity not pessimism in his
tone. Taylor states that he is “fascinated with
Australian culture and our never-ending ability
to endure irony and self-criticism.” His clear-
eyed refusal to panic, to have faith in what
is ‘real’ and of value is, in the final analysis,
perhaps a timely message for us all.
Kit Wise, 2005
In the first place
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
44 45
His titles - With friends like these; One size fits
all - also implicitly refer to this wider cultural
spectrum but with the black-tinged humour
of Ed Ruscha. However, unlike the American,
there is perspicacity not pessimism in his
tone. Taylor states that he is “fascinated with
Australian culture and our never-ending ability
to endure irony and self-criticism.” His clear-
eyed refusal to panic, to have faith in what
is ‘real’ and of value is, in the final analysis,
perhaps a timely message for us all.
Kit Wise, 2005
In the first place
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
46 47
From little things
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
One size fits all
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
46 47
From little things
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
One size fits all
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
48 49
Open all hours
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
In the long run
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
48 49
Open all hours
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
In the long run
2005
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
50 51
At all costs
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Return to sender
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
50 51
At all costs
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Return to sender
2005
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
MELBOURNE ART FAIR2006
MELBOURNE ART FAIR2006
54 55
This series of paintings explores Australian
consumerism through discarded objects. By
changing their social context they become
an iconography of society’s throwaways.
Exploring ourselves at a domestic level
helps us better to understand how our direct
surroundings influence and sculpt our society
and reveals the elements masking our own
unique Australian identity and culture base.
Familiar subject matter creates an
accessibility which offers an alternative
perspective of our domestic environment
- an environment which is so familiar yet
surprisingly uncharted. Our domestic
blindness is broken down to reveal an
aesthetic alternative and our mundane urban
surroundings become sensual and nostalgic.
These paintings challenge the socio-political,
commercial and personal meaning of
‘functional’ objects. Whether the objects
depicted are viewed as domestic and
operational - dysfunctional by their context
- or discarded and estranged from their
domesticity, their unsettled presence compels
the viewer to re-evaluate fundamental aspects
of our material and immaterial worlds.
Nathan Taylor
Out of order
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
54 55
This series of paintings explores Australian
consumerism through discarded objects. By
changing their social context they become
an iconography of society’s throwaways.
Exploring ourselves at a domestic level
helps us better to understand how our direct
surroundings influence and sculpt our society
and reveals the elements masking our own
unique Australian identity and culture base.
Familiar subject matter creates an
accessibility which offers an alternative
perspective of our domestic environment
- an environment which is so familiar yet
surprisingly uncharted. Our domestic
blindness is broken down to reveal an
aesthetic alternative and our mundane urban
surroundings become sensual and nostalgic.
These paintings challenge the socio-political,
commercial and personal meaning of
‘functional’ objects. Whether the objects
depicted are viewed as domestic and
operational - dysfunctional by their context
- or discarded and estranged from their
domesticity, their unsettled presence compels
the viewer to re-evaluate fundamental aspects
of our material and immaterial worlds.
Nathan Taylor
Out of order
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
56 57
Next to godliness
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
First come, first serve
2006
Acrylic on board
75 x 150 cm
56 57
Next to godliness
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
First come, first serve
2006
Acrylic on board
75 x 150 cm
58 59
Leading the blind
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
Use only as directed
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
58 59
Leading the blind
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
Use only as directed
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
60
Come to terms
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
60
Come to terms
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
THE SUBURBAN VERNACULAR2006 - 2007
THE SUBURBAN VERNACULAR2006 - 2007
64 65
This series of paintings surveys common
aspects of the suburban environment through
familiar objects. Reinterpreting suburban
language through the commonplace helps
to break down our domestic blindness. As a
result an aesthetic alternative emerges. Focus
begins to shift between the object’s habitual
disposition and that which is more personally
alluring for the viewer.
It is increasingly important in my work to
study the personal relationships we maintain
with our domestic objects, rituals and urban
surroundings, and how these objects help
to sculpt our society. This series has drawn
inspiration from both local and international
sources. By examining the subtle similarities
and differences between these environments,
I hope to focus on the core elements that
fashion each unique domestic make-up.
Ultimately I would like to share my own
appreciation for the beauty trapped within
the mundane, revealing how the fabric of our
domestic environment subtly influences our
daily routine.
In 2006 I embarked on an overseas research
project made possible through the Marten
Bequest Travelling Scholarship. During my
research trip I visited New York, Paris, Venice,
Florence, Rome and London to visit galleries
and absorb art from its source. My research
focused on movements that have influenced
my practice, in particular Baroque and
Renaissance paintings, still lifes by the Dutch
artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and the work of Photorealist artists.
I also used the opportunity to research each
city’s unique domestic make-up through
an extensive photographic survey. These
photos have become a source of inspiration
in the compositional development for this
series. I have juxtaposed the more subtle
environments of the European and American
compositions against the more harsh and
bright compositions sourced from Australia.
This draws attention to the subtle similarities
and differences between our domestic
environments revealing what makes each
space unique and important.
Nathan Taylor
By appointment only
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
64 65
This series of paintings surveys common
aspects of the suburban environment through
familiar objects. Reinterpreting suburban
language through the commonplace helps
to break down our domestic blindness. As a
result an aesthetic alternative emerges. Focus
begins to shift between the object’s habitual
disposition and that which is more personally
alluring for the viewer.
It is increasingly important in my work to
study the personal relationships we maintain
with our domestic objects, rituals and urban
surroundings, and how these objects help
to sculpt our society. This series has drawn
inspiration from both local and international
sources. By examining the subtle similarities
and differences between these environments,
I hope to focus on the core elements that
fashion each unique domestic make-up.
Ultimately I would like to share my own
appreciation for the beauty trapped within
the mundane, revealing how the fabric of our
domestic environment subtly influences our
daily routine.
In 2006 I embarked on an overseas research
project made possible through the Marten
Bequest Travelling Scholarship. During my
research trip I visited New York, Paris, Venice,
Florence, Rome and London to visit galleries
and absorb art from its source. My research
focused on movements that have influenced
my practice, in particular Baroque and
Renaissance paintings, still lifes by the Dutch
artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and the work of Photorealist artists.
I also used the opportunity to research each
city’s unique domestic make-up through
an extensive photographic survey. These
photos have become a source of inspiration
in the compositional development for this
series. I have juxtaposed the more subtle
environments of the European and American
compositions against the more harsh and
bright compositions sourced from Australia.
This draws attention to the subtle similarities
and differences between our domestic
environments revealing what makes each
space unique and important.
Nathan Taylor
By appointment only
2006
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
66 67
Through the eye of the gnat the world
becomes engorged; a place of gigantic artifice
with gargantuan temples of obscure beliefs.
The massive site of prayer depicted in One
for the team exudes the sense of a sacred site
with the remnants of sacraments left behind
by an ancient civilization; as imposing as the
Inca ruins – deserted and haunted.
To say that Nathan Taylor sees the world
from a unique perspective would be an
understatement. In the opening scenes of the
David Lynch film Blue Velvet, we emerge from
the morass of teeming life beneath the surface
of a suburban lawn. The clear implication is
the hidden threat beneath the everyday - that
we should learn to expect the unexpected. It
is this strangeness of perspective that Taylor
serves up; finding the codes in the arbitrary
detritus that he serves us.
When Taylor was in Europe the Cold War
returned with a vengeance. In To say the least
we can almost hear the ghastly crackle of
a broken line. Why has the phone been left
off the hook? It is an image that strangely
evokes both the end of the world and the
narrative of some horrendous misadventure.
In another picture initially composed in
Europe, On the safe side, Taylor creates a still
life in which remarkably archaic electric plugs
flank a stainless steel jug. In his European
pictures the mood is melancholic, one of
lonely hotel rooms and dilapidated, time-worn
environments.
Taylor is extraordinarily sensitive to colour.
In these works we shift from the muted
tones of Europe to the surreal fluorescence
of Manhattan through to the blazing skies of
the Antipodes. In each case there is a shift
of palette and tone creating an atmosphere
unique to each environment; the melancholy
Europe, the artifice of New York, the
boisterous Australia.
Suburban Vernacular
No love lost
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
66 67
Through the eye of the gnat the world
becomes engorged; a place of gigantic artifice
with gargantuan temples of obscure beliefs.
The massive site of prayer depicted in One
for the team exudes the sense of a sacred site
with the remnants of sacraments left behind
by an ancient civilization; as imposing as the
Inca ruins – deserted and haunted.
To say that Nathan Taylor sees the world
from a unique perspective would be an
understatement. In the opening scenes of the
David Lynch film Blue Velvet, we emerge from
the morass of teeming life beneath the surface
of a suburban lawn. The clear implication is
the hidden threat beneath the everyday - that
we should learn to expect the unexpected. It
is this strangeness of perspective that Taylor
serves up; finding the codes in the arbitrary
detritus that he serves us.
When Taylor was in Europe the Cold War
returned with a vengeance. In To say the least
we can almost hear the ghastly crackle of
a broken line. Why has the phone been left
off the hook? It is an image that strangely
evokes both the end of the world and the
narrative of some horrendous misadventure.
In another picture initially composed in
Europe, On the safe side, Taylor creates a still
life in which remarkably archaic electric plugs
flank a stainless steel jug. In his European
pictures the mood is melancholic, one of
lonely hotel rooms and dilapidated, time-worn
environments.
Taylor is extraordinarily sensitive to colour.
In these works we shift from the muted
tones of Europe to the surreal fluorescence
of Manhattan through to the blazing skies of
the Antipodes. In each case there is a shift
of palette and tone creating an atmosphere
unique to each environment; the melancholy
Europe, the artifice of New York, the
boisterous Australia.
Suburban Vernacular
No love lost
2006
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
68 69
Taylor pays homage to Gotham. One is
tempted to imagine that he was actually
sitting at the counter, gazing blankly at the
diningware, in Phillies Diner as depicted
in Edward Hopper’s famous 1942 painting
Nighthawks. In No love lost Taylor’s detailed
mis en scène captures the same strange
nostalgia and timelessness as Hopper’s
painting. In a strange way Taylor has rendered
a portrait of the soul of a city through the
most utilitarian of objects; a massive sugar
jar, a knife and fork, salt and pepper shakers, a
dispenser of Sweet ’n’ Low – for some reason
it is simply and unarguably Manhattan.
The mundane in Taylor’s work acts as a
metaphor for a sense of place. In Australia
a crushed beer can, a split cricket ball and a
tattered lawn chair in One for the team become
icons. Rendered from a gnat’s perspective
they become as immense and iconic as the
Pyramids. In No rest for the wicked the humble
lawnmower becomes a monstrous, if battered,
industrial behemoth.
Whereas Taylor’s European and New
York imagery with its muted colours is
claustrophobic and internalized, his Australian
images move to the wide spaces of the great
outdoors – or at least the suburban version
thereof. The skies in One for the team and No
rest for the wicked are the blazing ultramarine
that can be found nowhere else in the world
and the trees have the dusty patina that is
unique to Australian flora.
However that trend is broken in Count your
blessings; a painting that, despite its innocuous
content, screams threat and looming disaster
as two fire extinguishers sit next to electrical
wiring, languishing in the corner of some
basement. The bright red of their enamelled
surfaces, pitted and dusty, suggests the
moment before sheer panic.
To say the least
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
68 69
Taylor pays homage to Gotham. One is
tempted to imagine that he was actually
sitting at the counter, gazing blankly at the
diningware, in Phillies Diner as depicted
in Edward Hopper’s famous 1942 painting
Nighthawks. In No love lost Taylor’s detailed
mis en scène captures the same strange
nostalgia and timelessness as Hopper’s
painting. In a strange way Taylor has rendered
a portrait of the soul of a city through the
most utilitarian of objects; a massive sugar
jar, a knife and fork, salt and pepper shakers, a
dispenser of Sweet ’n’ Low – for some reason
it is simply and unarguably Manhattan.
The mundane in Taylor’s work acts as a
metaphor for a sense of place. In Australia
a crushed beer can, a split cricket ball and a
tattered lawn chair in One for the team become
icons. Rendered from a gnat’s perspective
they become as immense and iconic as the
Pyramids. In No rest for the wicked the humble
lawnmower becomes a monstrous, if battered,
industrial behemoth.
Whereas Taylor’s European and New
York imagery with its muted colours is
claustrophobic and internalized, his Australian
images move to the wide spaces of the great
outdoors – or at least the suburban version
thereof. The skies in One for the team and No
rest for the wicked are the blazing ultramarine
that can be found nowhere else in the world
and the trees have the dusty patina that is
unique to Australian flora.
However that trend is broken in Count your
blessings; a painting that, despite its innocuous
content, screams threat and looming disaster
as two fire extinguishers sit next to electrical
wiring, languishing in the corner of some
basement. The bright red of their enamelled
surfaces, pitted and dusty, suggests the
moment before sheer panic.
To say the least
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
70 71
While Taylor brings a wonderful sense of
humour - captured so clearly by his titles
- to these laboriously executed images, it
is impossible not to miss the fact that his
world is depopulated. There is an unnatural
hush to these works – the lawnmower is left
unattended, the lawn chair is vacant, the
silence in the New York diner is palpable.
There is a distinct pathos and melancholy
to the discarded shopping trolley in By
appointment only. Taylor’s objects, so everyday
and so mundane, suddenly become symbols
of a lost time, like memories or tears in the
rain - things from the past almost forgotten.
What is remarkable about these paintings is
that Taylor is largely self-taught. He emerged
during a time when young artists were told
that painting was dead, no longer relevant in
the postmodern world. It is intriguing that a
new generation is so virulently opposed to
that once-fashionable position. Such artists as
Chris Bond, Sam Leach, Juan Ford and Nathan
Taylor are proving that painting is far from
dead. Indeed, like the phoenix rising from the
ashes, painting is alive and well.
Ashley Crawford, 2007
No rest for the wicked
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
70 71
While Taylor brings a wonderful sense of
humour - captured so clearly by his titles
- to these laboriously executed images, it
is impossible not to miss the fact that his
world is depopulated. There is an unnatural
hush to these works – the lawnmower is left
unattended, the lawn chair is vacant, the
silence in the New York diner is palpable.
There is a distinct pathos and melancholy
to the discarded shopping trolley in By
appointment only. Taylor’s objects, so everyday
and so mundane, suddenly become symbols
of a lost time, like memories or tears in the
rain - things from the past almost forgotten.
What is remarkable about these paintings is
that Taylor is largely self-taught. He emerged
during a time when young artists were told
that painting was dead, no longer relevant in
the postmodern world. It is intriguing that a
new generation is so virulently opposed to
that once-fashionable position. Such artists as
Chris Bond, Sam Leach, Juan Ford and Nathan
Taylor are proving that painting is far from
dead. Indeed, like the phoenix rising from the
ashes, painting is alive and well.
Ashley Crawford, 2007
No rest for the wicked
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
72 73
On the safe side
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
One for the team
2007
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
72 73
On the safe side
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
One for the team
2007
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
74 75
Count your blessings
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Safety in numbers
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
74 75
Count your blessings
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Safety in numbers
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
76
By the way
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
76
By the way
2007
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
PORTRAITS: NEW DRAWINGS2007
PORTRAITS: NEW DRAWINGS2007
80 81
This series of drawings was inspired from
a David Hockney exhibition that I saw at
the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The exhibition was devoted entirely to his
portraits, spanning over fifty years: self-
portraits, portraits of family, lovers, friends
and well-known artists and socialites.
These works embodied an important visual
representation of his artistic influences and
obsessions. Each subject was an important
authority in Hockney’s life; his relationship to
the subject revealed through the intimacy of
portraiture.
I responded strongly to the idea of paying
tribute to the people who have influenced
me both personally and artistically: family
members, friends, my partner, fellow artists
and peers. Through portraiture I wanted
to explore each of the subject’s individual
characteristics, drawing out the subtle
gestures which compose their person.
Through this series of drawings I want to
convey how the people who make up my
life are endlessly influential to my artistic
direction.
Nathan Taylor
David Edgar
2007
Pastel on paper
93.5 x 70.5 cm
80 81
This series of drawings was inspired from
a David Hockney exhibition that I saw at
the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The exhibition was devoted entirely to his
portraits, spanning over fifty years: self-
portraits, portraits of family, lovers, friends
and well-known artists and socialites.
These works embodied an important visual
representation of his artistic influences and
obsessions. Each subject was an important
authority in Hockney’s life; his relationship to
the subject revealed through the intimacy of
portraiture.
I responded strongly to the idea of paying
tribute to the people who have influenced
me both personally and artistically: family
members, friends, my partner, fellow artists
and peers. Through portraiture I wanted
to explore each of the subject’s individual
characteristics, drawing out the subtle
gestures which compose their person.
Through this series of drawings I want to
convey how the people who make up my
life are endlessly influential to my artistic
direction.
Nathan Taylor
David Edgar
2007
Pastel on paper
93.5 x 70.5 cm
82 83
The relationship between painting and
drawing has its own mythological and
historical tradition. As a structural foundation,
drawing’s role was that of a map that
anchored the masterpiece. The ‘mark’
represents the beginning of the adventure
for the artist as it follows the parable of how
drawing was invented. According to Pliny the
Elder’s first century tale, a Corinthian maiden,
wanting a memento of her lover, traced his
silhouette on the wall from his shadow.
Nathan Taylor has always offered us an
absolute reflection of reality. The familiar
devices of everyday life are rendered with
such virtuosity that he elevates them to the
status of precious objects. The alchemist in
him turns the lawnmower or the Hills Hoist
into a national treasure. They become ‘brick
Vermeers’ with such masterful surfaces
that enlighten us to the paradise of chrome,
corrosion and coffee percolators. He is the
maestro of the suburban appliance with
domestic devices attaining iconic status
within his scrutiny. His skill requires absolute
knowledge of the object. Just as Leonardo
used drawing to catalogue his world, Taylor
uses it as a kind of instruction booklet to
describe its essence. But while this structure
is hidden from view beneath the surface of the
paint, Taylor also possesses equal command
of this discipline as a more expressive option.
Portraits:New drawings
Bill Taylor
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2008
82 83
The relationship between painting and
drawing has its own mythological and
historical tradition. As a structural foundation,
drawing’s role was that of a map that
anchored the masterpiece. The ‘mark’
represents the beginning of the adventure
for the artist as it follows the parable of how
drawing was invented. According to Pliny the
Elder’s first century tale, a Corinthian maiden,
wanting a memento of her lover, traced his
silhouette on the wall from his shadow.
Nathan Taylor has always offered us an
absolute reflection of reality. The familiar
devices of everyday life are rendered with
such virtuosity that he elevates them to the
status of precious objects. The alchemist in
him turns the lawnmower or the Hills Hoist
into a national treasure. They become ‘brick
Vermeers’ with such masterful surfaces
that enlighten us to the paradise of chrome,
corrosion and coffee percolators. He is the
maestro of the suburban appliance with
domestic devices attaining iconic status
within his scrutiny. His skill requires absolute
knowledge of the object. Just as Leonardo
used drawing to catalogue his world, Taylor
uses it as a kind of instruction booklet to
describe its essence. But while this structure
is hidden from view beneath the surface of the
paint, Taylor also possesses equal command
of this discipline as a more expressive option.
Portraits:New drawings
Bill Taylor
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2008
84 85
Although Taylor’s paintings contain the
effigies of hardware life, his drawings are the
language of an alternative universe. This is
both the world of the figure and the world of
people. However, much like the fragments
of a private Film Noir, his heavily cropped,
dramatic, tenebrist images from 1999 and
2002 revealed a more sinuous style, much like
‘Organic Mannerism’. Yes, the objects were
passionately executed, but here he sought the
substance of the portrait from beneath the
surface. The skin, the fabric, the object were
all unified within his fluid application of the
pastel.
With his current drawings, Nathan has
evolved and edited his obsessive modes.
While the avid autobiography of his previous
work has morphed into a more objective
rationale, his choice of material still represents
a satellite selection of associates within his
life. His gallerist, his partner, his family and
fellow artists, are all a hovering echelon within
his practice. But here, his previous penchant
for theatre is denuded; clearly now he cuts
to the chase, no longer distracted by all the
ancillary, delicious surfaces that contained or
framed the persona. He mines his subjects to
expose what is essentially within them.
Gill Taylor
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
84 85
Although Taylor’s paintings contain the
effigies of hardware life, his drawings are the
language of an alternative universe. This is
both the world of the figure and the world of
people. However, much like the fragments
of a private Film Noir, his heavily cropped,
dramatic, tenebrist images from 1999 and
2002 revealed a more sinuous style, much like
‘Organic Mannerism’. Yes, the objects were
passionately executed, but here he sought the
substance of the portrait from beneath the
surface. The skin, the fabric, the object were
all unified within his fluid application of the
pastel.
With his current drawings, Nathan has
evolved and edited his obsessive modes.
While the avid autobiography of his previous
work has morphed into a more objective
rationale, his choice of material still represents
a satellite selection of associates within his
life. His gallerist, his partner, his family and
fellow artists, are all a hovering echelon within
his practice. But here, his previous penchant
for theatre is denuded; clearly now he cuts
to the chase, no longer distracted by all the
ancillary, delicious surfaces that contained or
framed the persona. He mines his subjects to
expose what is essentially within them.
Gill Taylor
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
86 87
Here is a commitment to the individual, the
personality and not just the authentic facade.
Each character is identified within a single
homogenous, if not spontaneous gesture, a
fragment in time that somehow encapsulates
a defining moment for that entity. The
fumbling with spectacles, the sighing between
sentences, the guffaw, are all indicative of
the subtle nuance of their being. This, much
like Pliny’s Corinthian maiden, is essentially
Taylor’s own unique tracing of memory.
Wayne Brookes, 2007
Wayne Brookes
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize 2008 and as part of the City of Hobart Art Prize 2009
86 87
Here is a commitment to the individual, the
personality and not just the authentic facade.
Each character is identified within a single
homogenous, if not spontaneous gesture, a
fragment in time that somehow encapsulates
a defining moment for that entity. The
fumbling with spectacles, the sighing between
sentences, the guffaw, are all indicative of
the subtle nuance of their being. This, much
like Pliny’s Corinthian maiden, is essentially
Taylor’s own unique tracing of memory.
Wayne Brookes, 2007
Wayne Brookes
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize 2008 and as part of the City of Hobart Art Prize 2009
88 89
Jane Barlow
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
Bree Mooney
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
88 89
Jane Barlow
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
Bree Mooney
2007
Pastel on paper
70.5 x 93.5 cm
90
Dale Richards
2007
Pastel on paper
93.5 x 70.5 cm
90
Dale Richards
2007
Pastel on paper
93.5 x 70.5 cm
CULTURE MADE EASY2008
CULTURE MADE EASY2008
94 95
A quick glance at elements of our suburban
language immediately reveals how our society
is trapped within a cycle of disposable culture,
addicted to consumerism. As our moral and
social values become victim to this addiction
our social fabric is desensitised through a
new modern commercial philosophy. This
breakdown begins to question the direction
of Australia’s social identity and the slow
corrosion of the once celebrated ‘Australian
dream’.
Why are we rewarded for spending and why
are we judged by our wealth and possessions?
The notion of value has been lost, replaced
with a price tag. Capitalism rewards those
who nourish it and eliminates those who
don’t.
This series of paintings explores the subtle
decay of contemporary Australian culture
by examining snapshots of our suburban
and regional landscape. By examining the
objects that dictate our social addictions
and claustrophobic routines, I hope to raise
questions about our cultural and historical
identity.
Domestic apathy and blindness is revealed
through uncovering the hidden desires and
overlooked aesthetic perceptions of ordinary
objects. By shifting the conventional context
of the everyday, an underlying sense of unease
is revealed, strangely paralleled by feelings of
nostalgia. The inanimate becomes significant
and the anonymous, intimate.
As the conventional ‘Australian Dream’
continues to fuel its own demise, I offer an
insight into the elements and behaviour that
have forged this fate and help seed ideas that
will aid in a sustainable future.
Nathan Taylor
Close to home
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
94 95
A quick glance at elements of our suburban
language immediately reveals how our society
is trapped within a cycle of disposable culture,
addicted to consumerism. As our moral and
social values become victim to this addiction
our social fabric is desensitised through a
new modern commercial philosophy. This
breakdown begins to question the direction
of Australia’s social identity and the slow
corrosion of the once celebrated ‘Australian
dream’.
Why are we rewarded for spending and why
are we judged by our wealth and possessions?
The notion of value has been lost, replaced
with a price tag. Capitalism rewards those
who nourish it and eliminates those who
don’t.
This series of paintings explores the subtle
decay of contemporary Australian culture
by examining snapshots of our suburban
and regional landscape. By examining the
objects that dictate our social addictions
and claustrophobic routines, I hope to raise
questions about our cultural and historical
identity.
Domestic apathy and blindness is revealed
through uncovering the hidden desires and
overlooked aesthetic perceptions of ordinary
objects. By shifting the conventional context
of the everyday, an underlying sense of unease
is revealed, strangely paralleled by feelings of
nostalgia. The inanimate becomes significant
and the anonymous, intimate.
As the conventional ‘Australian Dream’
continues to fuel its own demise, I offer an
insight into the elements and behaviour that
have forged this fate and help seed ideas that
will aid in a sustainable future.
Nathan Taylor
Close to home
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
96 97
Priced to clear
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Metro Art Award 2008
Make ends meet
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
96 97
Priced to clear
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Metro Art Award 2008
Make ends meet
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
98 99
Beyond the pale
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Subject to finance
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
98 99
Beyond the pale
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Subject to finance
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
100 101
On the bright side
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Bare with me
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
100 101
On the bright side
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Bare with me
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
HOMESICK2008 - 2009
HOMESICK2008 - 2009
104 105
The familiar and commonplace objects
that populate our domestic and urban
environments have evolved to signify our
consumer-based contemporary culture.
Consequently, everyday objects take on
iconographic significance, representing social
worth, wealth, personality and beliefs.
This series explores objects within public and
private surroundings, revealing habitual or
ritualistic associations. There is a collective
sense of a banal familiarity, but also the draw
of a personal narrative - each work depicting
notions of intimacy and displacement.
Homesickness is drawn from nostalgia, the
longing for an idealised past. An object or
space becomes a memory trigger, a physical
reminder of a moment in time. These
paintings examine this contemporary role of
the object and how its projected social value
influences our feeling of security, satisfaction
and purpose - elements which constitute a
sense of place, of being home.
Nathan Taylor
Blessing in disguise
2008
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
104 105
The familiar and commonplace objects
that populate our domestic and urban
environments have evolved to signify our
consumer-based contemporary culture.
Consequently, everyday objects take on
iconographic significance, representing social
worth, wealth, personality and beliefs.
This series explores objects within public and
private surroundings, revealing habitual or
ritualistic associations. There is a collective
sense of a banal familiarity, but also the draw
of a personal narrative - each work depicting
notions of intimacy and displacement.
Homesickness is drawn from nostalgia, the
longing for an idealised past. An object or
space becomes a memory trigger, a physical
reminder of a moment in time. These
paintings examine this contemporary role of
the object and how its projected social value
influences our feeling of security, satisfaction
and purpose - elements which constitute a
sense of place, of being home.
Nathan Taylor
Blessing in disguise
2008
Acrylic on board
60 x 120 cm
106 107
Taken to heart
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Force of habit
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
106 107
Taken to heart
2008
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Force of habit
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
108 109
Learn your lesson
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Never the less
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
108 109
Learn your lesson
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Never the less
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
110 111
Cut your losses
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Once in a while
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
110 111
Cut your losses
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Once in a while
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
112
Good things come
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
112
Good things come
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
DEAD TO THE WORLD2009 - 2010
DEAD TO THE WORLD2009 - 2010
116 117
This series of paintings surveys our common
urban environment, drawing out the anxiety of
the familiar and revealing the blind nature in
which modern society functions.
Today’s consumption-based rituals speak of
a culture addicted to a disposable lifestyle.
Our contemporary cultural identity has
been moulded through the saturation of
iconic branding and popularised marketing
Individuality is substituted for fashion-based
consumables.
Painting provides an objective platform
for critical analysis into otherwise
mundane objects and scenery, coupled
with a deliberately composed aesthetic. A
subtle narrative draws on intimacy and
displacement, speaking directly to the viewer.
This tension then compels the viewer to
begin questioning their preconceived social
associations with the subject matter. Insight
into seemingly innocent objects intensifies,
shifting to symbolise points of cultural and
personal scrutiny.
Addressing these current social issues and
capturing the decay of this corruptive cycle
reveals its deepening impact on our future
identity. This important new role of the object
challenges our personal, social and cultural
values invested within an addictive disposable
routine.
Nathan Taylor
Off the record
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
116 117
This series of paintings surveys our common
urban environment, drawing out the anxiety of
the familiar and revealing the blind nature in
which modern society functions.
Today’s consumption-based rituals speak of
a culture addicted to a disposable lifestyle.
Our contemporary cultural identity has
been moulded through the saturation of
iconic branding and popularised marketing
Individuality is substituted for fashion-based
consumables.
Painting provides an objective platform
for critical analysis into otherwise
mundane objects and scenery, coupled
with a deliberately composed aesthetic. A
subtle narrative draws on intimacy and
displacement, speaking directly to the viewer.
This tension then compels the viewer to
begin questioning their preconceived social
associations with the subject matter. Insight
into seemingly innocent objects intensifies,
shifting to symbolise points of cultural and
personal scrutiny.
Addressing these current social issues and
capturing the decay of this corruptive cycle
reveals its deepening impact on our future
identity. This important new role of the object
challenges our personal, social and cultural
values invested within an addictive disposable
routine.
Nathan Taylor
Off the record
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
118 119
The more problems the visual world throws in
the path of Nathan Taylor, the more he solves
them and comes back to ask for more. The
crinkled cellophane from a cigarette packet?
No problem, he can paint that. Would you like
a row of terraced houses reflected across its
warped surface? A piece of green chewing
gum, screwed up like an alien brain? Here
it is, the size of a peanut. A couple making
love, reflected in the hubcap of a car, or in an
overturned beer glass? Taylor paints them so
small you hardly notice them noticing you.
‘I’ll be your mirror,’ Nico sang to the
background hum of the Velvet Underground,
but she couldn’t reflect her world as well as
Nathan Taylor can reflect his.
Nathan Taylor is much more than a mirror.
His compositions, which are framed with the
same skills that a Hollywood cinematographer
brings to his craft, are planned in incredible
detail. The French brothers Le Nain brought
us paintings viewed from a very low horizon
line and Taylor has this skill too. We see a
supermarket trolley viewed from the angle of
a passing alley cat or a wino lying in the gutter.
The Slownessof Paint
Off by heart
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship 2010
118 119
The more problems the visual world throws in
the path of Nathan Taylor, the more he solves
them and comes back to ask for more. The
crinkled cellophane from a cigarette packet?
No problem, he can paint that. Would you like
a row of terraced houses reflected across its
warped surface? A piece of green chewing
gum, screwed up like an alien brain? Here
it is, the size of a peanut. A couple making
love, reflected in the hubcap of a car, or in an
overturned beer glass? Taylor paints them so
small you hardly notice them noticing you.
‘I’ll be your mirror,’ Nico sang to the
background hum of the Velvet Underground,
but she couldn’t reflect her world as well as
Nathan Taylor can reflect his.
Nathan Taylor is much more than a mirror.
His compositions, which are framed with the
same skills that a Hollywood cinematographer
brings to his craft, are planned in incredible
detail. The French brothers Le Nain brought
us paintings viewed from a very low horizon
line and Taylor has this skill too. We see a
supermarket trolley viewed from the angle of
a passing alley cat or a wino lying in the gutter.
The Slownessof Paint
Off by heart
2009
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship 2010
120 121
Elsewhere it is the things we throw away, the
things we never give a second glance to that
this remarkable artist spends hours, days,
rendering in paint. French fries are cold and
stiff, like severed legs. The cardboard bucket
that holds them is crushed and the nearby
cigarette has been stubbed out, lying at a
strange angle like a broken neck. He does a
good line in what might be called ‘damaged
umbilical cords’ – the overused rubber hose
of the petrol bowser, the shower attachment
suckered to the taps in the bathroom sink,
the yanked-one-time-too-many payphone
cord. Many of these devices don’t even have
recognisable names, so little do we know
them. And yet between the form and the
content – think Andres Serrano’s delicious Piss
Christ - and between the paint and the object
painted we have an epiphany that is orchestral
in its power.
England had its Kitchen Sink School, led by
the great painter John Bratby, while America
had the Ashcan School. Both were followed
by an international movement known as
Photorealism. Taylor is aware of all these, of
course, but places his uniquely Australian
vision within a globalised world market. He
paints local and puns global, to bowdlerise a
popular phrase.
Turn a blind eye
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
120 121
Elsewhere it is the things we throw away, the
things we never give a second glance to that
this remarkable artist spends hours, days,
rendering in paint. French fries are cold and
stiff, like severed legs. The cardboard bucket
that holds them is crushed and the nearby
cigarette has been stubbed out, lying at a
strange angle like a broken neck. He does a
good line in what might be called ‘damaged
umbilical cords’ – the overused rubber hose
of the petrol bowser, the shower attachment
suckered to the taps in the bathroom sink,
the yanked-one-time-too-many payphone
cord. Many of these devices don’t even have
recognisable names, so little do we know
them. And yet between the form and the
content – think Andres Serrano’s delicious Piss
Christ - and between the paint and the object
painted we have an epiphany that is orchestral
in its power.
England had its Kitchen Sink School, led by
the great painter John Bratby, while America
had the Ashcan School. Both were followed
by an international movement known as
Photorealism. Taylor is aware of all these, of
course, but places his uniquely Australian
vision within a globalised world market. He
paints local and puns global, to bowdlerise a
popular phrase.
Turn a blind eye
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
122 123
“I think my obsession with our immediate
environment came from me trying to process
and understand all the information contained
within it, attempting to capture its trapped
beauty and share it through painting,” he tells
me from his studio in Hobart. “Like the plastic
cup in Dead to the world. I’m so transfixed by
its aesthetic qualities that I almost forget that
it’s a piece of rubbish. It’s almost like it takes
on a new life beyond its intended purpose.
But, in contrast, the cup still speaks of a
disposable culture and represents unhealthy
recreational consumption habits and fast
food. I hope that this contrast in ideas
creates an interesting tension within each
piece; something of beauty and aesthetic
attraction but also ideas that tap into
something a little darker, social failures and
questionable cultural norms.”
Taylor is quite specific about what does and
does not influence him. Photographers, for
example, are more important than painters.
Films are important, but not individual ones,
rather certain framing devices in certain shots.
“I really respond to William Eggleston’s
work,” he continues. “I think he has a very
unique aesthetic and an amazing ability to
capture the complexity and beauty in the
mundane. I think he makes a very clever
social commentary by capturing the grain of
the immediate.”
Dead to the world
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Fletcher Jones Art Prize 2010
122 123
“I think my obsession with our immediate
environment came from me trying to process
and understand all the information contained
within it, attempting to capture its trapped
beauty and share it through painting,” he tells
me from his studio in Hobart. “Like the plastic
cup in Dead to the world. I’m so transfixed by
its aesthetic qualities that I almost forget that
it’s a piece of rubbish. It’s almost like it takes
on a new life beyond its intended purpose.
But, in contrast, the cup still speaks of a
disposable culture and represents unhealthy
recreational consumption habits and fast
food. I hope that this contrast in ideas
creates an interesting tension within each
piece; something of beauty and aesthetic
attraction but also ideas that tap into
something a little darker, social failures and
questionable cultural norms.”
Taylor is quite specific about what does and
does not influence him. Photographers, for
example, are more important than painters.
Films are important, but not individual ones,
rather certain framing devices in certain shots.
“I really respond to William Eggleston’s
work,” he continues. “I think he has a very
unique aesthetic and an amazing ability to
capture the complexity and beauty in the
mundane. I think he makes a very clever
social commentary by capturing the grain of
the immediate.”
Dead to the world
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Fletcher Jones Art Prize 2010
124 125
He does, however, praise the American
painters Ralph Goings and Robert Bechtle
for the way in which they “democratised the
ordinary”, helping the viewer to reassess their
own environment. “I like the way their style
deliberately went against any contemporary
art elitism opening their ideas to a broader
audience base.”
As our conversation expands he mentions
David Hockney, James Rosenquist and
Gerhard Richter, as well as Australian peers
Juan Ford and Wayne Brookes.
These recent paintings take Nathan Taylor’s
work to a new level. Some have been seen
at the Melbourne Art Fair, others in national
painting prizes. The people who collect
them do so with a passion and, as a result,
understand more about the consumer society
in which we live and how we see. If they look
closely, as they hang one of Taylor’s works on
their living room walls, they may be surprised
at what is reflected – not at the speed of light
but through the slowness of paint.
Peter Hill, 2010
Change of heart
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Redlands Westpac Art Prize 2010
124 125
He does, however, praise the American
painters Ralph Goings and Robert Bechtle
for the way in which they “democratised the
ordinary”, helping the viewer to reassess their
own environment. “I like the way their style
deliberately went against any contemporary
art elitism opening their ideas to a broader
audience base.”
As our conversation expands he mentions
David Hockney, James Rosenquist and
Gerhard Richter, as well as Australian peers
Juan Ford and Wayne Brookes.
These recent paintings take Nathan Taylor’s
work to a new level. Some have been seen
at the Melbourne Art Fair, others in national
painting prizes. The people who collect
them do so with a passion and, as a result,
understand more about the consumer society
in which we live and how we see. If they look
closely, as they hang one of Taylor’s works on
their living room walls, they may be surprised
at what is reflected – not at the speed of light
but through the slowness of paint.
Peter Hill, 2010
Change of heart
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Redlands Westpac Art Prize 2010
126 127
Survival of the fittest
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Run the risk
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
126 127
Survival of the fittest
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Run the risk
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
128
No hard feelings
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
128
No hard feelings
2010
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
LOVED TO DEATH2011 - 2012
LOVED TO DEATH2011 - 2012
132 133
This series investigates the self-destructive
nature of current social behaviours and
habits. I believe the most compelling physical
representation of our consumption-based
culture is rubbish. These works explore
a landscape of familiar branded products
discarded in public spaces. Refuse has
become a visual by-product of our mono-
focused aspiration towards an unsustainable
lifestyle. It is a strong metaphor in
symbolising everything selfish, lazy and
greedy about modern culture.
More specifically these works are in direct
reaction to an increasing reluctance to
change our routine behaviour which is
currently impacting on the environment. As
these seemingly simple decisions become
politicised and distorted through the media,
we become disassociated from the reality of
the problem. Our ability to be educated is
blurred through a skewed representation of
facts.
I have tried to capture this tension of
misunderstanding and misrepresentation by
creating something negative in an aesthetic
way.
Nathan Taylor
Value of suffering
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011
132 133
This series investigates the self-destructive
nature of current social behaviours and
habits. I believe the most compelling physical
representation of our consumption-based
culture is rubbish. These works explore
a landscape of familiar branded products
discarded in public spaces. Refuse has
become a visual by-product of our mono-
focused aspiration towards an unsustainable
lifestyle. It is a strong metaphor in
symbolising everything selfish, lazy and
greedy about modern culture.
More specifically these works are in direct
reaction to an increasing reluctance to
change our routine behaviour which is
currently impacting on the environment. As
these seemingly simple decisions become
politicised and distorted through the media,
we become disassociated from the reality of
the problem. Our ability to be educated is
blurred through a skewed representation of
facts.
I have tried to capture this tension of
misunderstanding and misrepresentation by
creating something negative in an aesthetic
way.
Nathan Taylor
Value of suffering
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011
134 135
Worried to death
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Serve you right
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
134 135
Worried to death
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Serve you right
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
136 137
New-found freedom
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Running on empty
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
136 137
New-found freedom
2011
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Running on empty
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
138 139
Loved to death
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Speak of the devil
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cmExhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2012 Exhibited as part of the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize) 2012
138 139
Loved to death
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cm
Speak of the devil
2012
Acrylic on board
50 x 100 cmExhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2012 Exhibited as part of the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize) 2012
140
Supply and demand
2012
Acrylic on board
40 x 80 cm
140
Supply and demand
2012
Acrylic on board
40 x 80 cm
PHOTOGRAPHS2008-2011
PHOTOGRAPHS2008-2011
144 145
Untitled i
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
The photographic image has always been
a critical launching point for all my creative
pursuits. In the same way that my painting
practice has evolved, so too has the role
and importance of the camera. As I develop
my ideas and tune the way in which I
communicate them, photography has
become a more crucial tool to help guide this
progression.
My ongoing exploration into the photographic
image has helped seed its own direction,
evolving naturally towards a unique artistic
pursuit in its own right. By canvassing similar
subject matter through different approaches
I hope to offer greater access and a broader
perspective into my ideas.
Photography has also enabled me to create
an extensive visual diary, an ongoing personal
archive of our environment, in which I
document objects and spaces, and track my
ideas. By using photography in this way I
can fastidiously map, organise, capture and
ultimately understand the immense amount
of information that daily inundates us.
As my practice evolves I hope to strengthen
my use of the camera not only for the purpose
of painting, but also in its own right. I feel
photography has the potential to help me
further rationalise and decode an ever-
increasing visually saturated landscape. I
hope that this slowly expanding body of
exhibited photographs works synchronous
with my painting, tracing a similar path, but
conversing in a different language.
Nathan Taylor
144 145
Untitled i
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
The photographic image has always been
a critical launching point for all my creative
pursuits. In the same way that my painting
practice has evolved, so too has the role
and importance of the camera. As I develop
my ideas and tune the way in which I
communicate them, photography has
become a more crucial tool to help guide this
progression.
My ongoing exploration into the photographic
image has helped seed its own direction,
evolving naturally towards a unique artistic
pursuit in its own right. By canvassing similar
subject matter through different approaches
I hope to offer greater access and a broader
perspective into my ideas.
Photography has also enabled me to create
an extensive visual diary, an ongoing personal
archive of our environment, in which I
document objects and spaces, and track my
ideas. By using photography in this way I
can fastidiously map, organise, capture and
ultimately understand the immense amount
of information that daily inundates us.
As my practice evolves I hope to strengthen
my use of the camera not only for the purpose
of painting, but also in its own right. I feel
photography has the potential to help me
further rationalise and decode an ever-
increasing visually saturated landscape. I
hope that this slowly expanding body of
exhibited photographs works synchronous
with my painting, tracing a similar path, but
conversing in a different language.
Nathan Taylor
146 147
Untitled ii
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Mount Eyre Prize 2010
Untitled iii
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
146 147
Untitled ii
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Mount Eyre Prize 2010
Untitled iii
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
148 149
Untitled iv
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled v
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
148 149
Untitled iv
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled v
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
150 151
Untitled vi
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled vii
[I scream, you scream]
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the CLIP Award 2010 and the Mount Eyre Prize 2011
150 151
Untitled vi
2008
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled vii
[I scream, you scream]
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the CLIP Award 2010 and the Mount Eyre Prize 2011
152 153
Untitled viii
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled ix
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
152 153
Untitled viii
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled ix
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
154 155
Untitled x
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled xi
2011
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
154 155
Untitled x
2010
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6
Untitled xi
2011
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
156
Untitled xii
2011
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
156
Untitled xii
2011
Digital print
56 x 90 cm
Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
NATHAN TAYLOR
NATHAN TAYLOR
160 161
BORN 1979
EDUCATION
2006 Bachelor of Fine Arts Dean’s Honour Roll University of Tasmania Centre for the Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012 Loved to Death Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay www.michaelreid.com.au
2010 Dead to the World Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay www.michaelreid.com.au
2009 Homesick Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne www.mossgreen.com.au
2008 Six New Works Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
Culture Made Easy Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne www.lindenarts.org
2007 Portrait: New Drawings Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
The Suburban Vernacular Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne www.mossgreen.com.au
2006 Melbourne Art Fair Represented by Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2005 Recent Paintings (Concrete Poetics) Harrison Galleries (formerly Brian Moore Gallery), Sydney www.harrisongalleries.com.au
2004 Melbourne Art Fair Represented by Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2003 Love & Concrete Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2000 Photographic Memory Foyer Installation Gallery, Hobart
Reminiscence Little Space Gallery, Hobart College, Hobart
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 Murr-ma Halle am Wasser, Invalidenstrasse, Berlin
Linden Postcard Show Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
2011 Red Despard Gallery, Hobart
2010 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
NATHAN TAYLORwww.nathantaylor.com.au 2009 ArtSale@TMAG
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart
Here/Now Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2008 21st Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
Metro Art Award Benalla Regional Gallery, Benalla
2007 20th Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
New Gallery Launch Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
What ever I like... Despard Gallery, Hobart
2006 Summer Group Show Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Artist Stable Launch Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Salon, Tasmanian Group Exhibition Peter Lane Gallery, Woollahra, NSW
2003 16th Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
2002 A Baroque Christmas, 15th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
Off the Rack Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
2001 14th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
Emerging Artist Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
To be Announced ... Little Space Gallery, Hobart College, Hobart
Raw Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
2000 Salsa 13th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
1999 Palate to Palette Elizabeth Street, Hobart
1998 The Summer Show Entrepot Gallery, Hobart
1997 Art Rage Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston
1996 Art Rage Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
COMMISSIONS
2011 Portrait of His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood
2002 Mural for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council Education Centre
GRANTS
2007 Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant
2006 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship
2003 Artist Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
Industry Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
160 161
BORN 1979
EDUCATION
2006 Bachelor of Fine Arts Dean’s Honour Roll University of Tasmania Centre for the Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012 Loved to Death Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay www.michaelreid.com.au
2010 Dead to the World Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay www.michaelreid.com.au
2009 Homesick Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne www.mossgreen.com.au
2008 Six New Works Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
Culture Made Easy Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne www.lindenarts.org
2007 Portrait: New Drawings Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
The Suburban Vernacular Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne www.mossgreen.com.au
2006 Melbourne Art Fair Represented by Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2005 Recent Paintings (Concrete Poetics) Harrison Galleries (formerly Brian Moore Gallery), Sydney www.harrisongalleries.com.au
2004 Melbourne Art Fair Represented by Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2003 Love & Concrete Despard Gallery, Hobart www.despard-gallery.com.au
2000 Photographic Memory Foyer Installation Gallery, Hobart
Reminiscence Little Space Gallery, Hobart College, Hobart
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2012 Murr-ma Halle am Wasser, Invalidenstrasse, Berlin
Linden Postcard Show Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
2011 Red Despard Gallery, Hobart
2010 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
NATHAN TAYLORwww.nathantaylor.com.au 2009 ArtSale@TMAG
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart
Here/Now Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2008 21st Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
Metro Art Award Benalla Regional Gallery, Benalla
2007 20th Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
New Gallery Launch Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
What ever I like... Despard Gallery, Hobart
2006 Summer Group Show Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2005 Artist Stable Launch Mossgreen Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Salon, Tasmanian Group Exhibition Peter Lane Gallery, Woollahra, NSW
2003 16th Annual Summer Show Despard Gallery, Hobart
2002 A Baroque Christmas, 15th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
Off the Rack Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
2001 14th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
Emerging Artist Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
To be Announced ... Little Space Gallery, Hobart College, Hobart
Raw Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart
2000 Salsa 13th Annual Christmas Exhibition Despard Gallery, Hobart
1999 Palate to Palette Elizabeth Street, Hobart
1998 The Summer Show Entrepot Gallery, Hobart
1997 Art Rage Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston
1996 Art Rage Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
COMMISSIONS
2011 Portrait of His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood
2002 Mural for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council Education Centre
GRANTS
2007 Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant
2006 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship
2003 Artist Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
Industry Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
162 163
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS
2012 Finalist, Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize)
Finalist, John Fries Memorial Prize
Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize
2011 Finalist, Corangamarah Art Prize
Finalist, John Fries Memorial Prize
Finalist, Mount Eyre Art Prize
2010 Nominated, Redlands Westpac Art Prize - Emerging Artists
Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
Finalist, Fletcher Jones Art Prize
Finalist, CLIP Award
Finalist, Mount Eyre Art Prize
2009 Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize
2008 Finalist, Corangamarah Art Prize
Finalist, Metro Art Award
Finalist, Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize
2007 Finalist, RIPE Art & Australia/ANZ Private Bank Contemporary Art Award
2003 Finalist, Hutchins Art Prize
2002 Finalist, Metro Art Award
1997 Art Production Prize
Ian McDonald Memorial Prize
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012 Eccles, Jeremy, Australian Art Review, April-May 2012
Rauch, Helmut, Photorealism, PhD thesis on Photorealism, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria
Buchanan, Tanya, ‘Belle Reader Event’, Belle Magazine, June-July 2012
‘Belle Reader Event’, Belle Magazine, February- March 2012
Taylor, Andrew, ‘Culture’, Sun Herald, 7 August 2011
2011 Sargent, Anne-Marie, ‘Right Now Art’, Belle, June-July 2011
Cloney, Emily and Michael Reid, Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? 2011
‘Our Times’, Belle, April-May 2011
2010 Flynn, Paul, Artist Profile Magazine, Issue 13, 2010
Cormack, Bridget, ‘Arts, Out & About’, The Australian, 3 November 2010
Small, Bethany, ‘Front Row Arts’, The Drum Media, 2 November 2010
Vowles, Gill, The Mercury, 12 November 2010
Ooi, Teresa, ‘Pulse of the Nation’, The Weekend Australian, 13 November 2010
Dwyer, Lynne in ‘Spectrum’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13-14 November 2010
‘On The Wall’, Nine to Five, Issue 1122, 22 November 2010
‘What’s On’, Nine to Five, Issue 1121, 15 November 2010
The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2010
Reid, Michael, ‘The Art Market Monitor’, 27 October 2010
2009 Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, September 2009
‘Inside Stories’, The Saturday Mercury. 20 June 2009
Cockington, James, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 2009
‘50 Most Collectable Artists’, Australian Art Collector, Issue #47, 2009
Joyce, Ella, TMAGgots, ‘The Apple’, Issue 6, Autumn 2009
2008 ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Art Market Report, Issue 30
Selby, Clyde, ‘Gallery Watch’ in ‘Review’, The Mercury, 15 November 2008
Thow, Penny in Sunday Tasmanian, 2 November 2008
Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, November 2008
Abell, Judith, ‘TasWrap’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 46, 2008
Moore, Ross, ‘Metro’, The Age, 22 August 2008
Crawford, Ashley, ‘A2’, The Age, 16 August 2008
‘Must See’, Artist Profile, Issue 4,
2008 Bittar, Nicole, ‘A2’, The Age, A2, 12 July 2008
Gencturk, Pinar, Moreland Community News, 10 June 2008
Stockman, David, ‘Art’, Moreland Leader, 9 June 2008
2007 Crisp, Lindall, ‘Arts’, The Financial Review, 15-16 December 2007
Selby, Clyde, ‘Gallery Watch’ in ‘Review’, The Mercury, 1 December 2007
Brookes, Wayne, ‘Portrait: New drawings by Nathan Taylor’ exhibition catalogue essay, 2007
Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, September 2007
Backhouse, Megan, ‘A2’, The Age, 22 September 2007
Backhouse, Megan, ‘Metro’, The Age, 15 August 2007
Crawford, Ashley, ‘Suburban Vernacular’, exhibition catalogue essay
2006 ‘The Australian Art Market Report’, The Australian, Issue 20, Winter 2006
2005 ‘Collector’, The Wentworth Courier, 30 November 2005
‘The Australian Art Market Report’, The Australian, Issue 18, Summer 2005
Backhouse, Megan, ‘Metro’, The Age, 26 October 2005
Wise, Kit ‘Nathan Taylor: Concrete Poetics’, catalogue essay
162 163
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & AWARDS
2012 Finalist, Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize)
Finalist, John Fries Memorial Prize
Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize
2011 Finalist, Corangamarah Art Prize
Finalist, John Fries Memorial Prize
Finalist, Mount Eyre Art Prize
2010 Nominated, Redlands Westpac Art Prize - Emerging Artists
Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
Finalist, Fletcher Jones Art Prize
Finalist, CLIP Award
Finalist, Mount Eyre Art Prize
2009 Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize
2008 Finalist, Corangamarah Art Prize
Finalist, Metro Art Award
Finalist, Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize
2007 Finalist, RIPE Art & Australia/ANZ Private Bank Contemporary Art Award
2003 Finalist, Hutchins Art Prize
2002 Finalist, Metro Art Award
1997 Art Production Prize
Ian McDonald Memorial Prize
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2012 Eccles, Jeremy, Australian Art Review, April-May 2012
Rauch, Helmut, Photorealism, PhD thesis on Photorealism, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria
Buchanan, Tanya, ‘Belle Reader Event’, Belle Magazine, June-July 2012
‘Belle Reader Event’, Belle Magazine, February- March 2012
Taylor, Andrew, ‘Culture’, Sun Herald, 7 August 2011
2011 Sargent, Anne-Marie, ‘Right Now Art’, Belle, June-July 2011
Cloney, Emily and Michael Reid, Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? 2011
‘Our Times’, Belle, April-May 2011
2010 Flynn, Paul, Artist Profile Magazine, Issue 13, 2010
Cormack, Bridget, ‘Arts, Out & About’, The Australian, 3 November 2010
Small, Bethany, ‘Front Row Arts’, The Drum Media, 2 November 2010
Vowles, Gill, The Mercury, 12 November 2010
Ooi, Teresa, ‘Pulse of the Nation’, The Weekend Australian, 13 November 2010
Dwyer, Lynne in ‘Spectrum’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13-14 November 2010
‘On The Wall’, Nine to Five, Issue 1122, 22 November 2010
‘What’s On’, Nine to Five, Issue 1121, 15 November 2010
The Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2010
Reid, Michael, ‘The Art Market Monitor’, 27 October 2010
2009 Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, September 2009
‘Inside Stories’, The Saturday Mercury. 20 June 2009
Cockington, James, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March 2009
‘50 Most Collectable Artists’, Australian Art Collector, Issue #47, 2009
Joyce, Ella, TMAGgots, ‘The Apple’, Issue 6, Autumn 2009
2008 ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Art Market Report, Issue 30
Selby, Clyde, ‘Gallery Watch’ in ‘Review’, The Mercury, 15 November 2008
Thow, Penny in Sunday Tasmanian, 2 November 2008
Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, November 2008
Abell, Judith, ‘TasWrap’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 46, 2008
Moore, Ross, ‘Metro’, The Age, 22 August 2008
Crawford, Ashley, ‘A2’, The Age, 16 August 2008
‘Must See’, Artist Profile, Issue 4,
2008 Bittar, Nicole, ‘A2’, The Age, A2, 12 July 2008
Gencturk, Pinar, Moreland Community News, 10 June 2008
Stockman, David, ‘Art’, Moreland Leader, 9 June 2008
2007 Crisp, Lindall, ‘Arts’, The Financial Review, 15-16 December 2007
Selby, Clyde, ‘Gallery Watch’ in ‘Review’, The Mercury, 1 December 2007
Brookes, Wayne, ‘Portrait: New drawings by Nathan Taylor’ exhibition catalogue essay, 2007
Exhibition profile in Art Almanac, September 2007
Backhouse, Megan, ‘A2’, The Age, 22 September 2007
Backhouse, Megan, ‘Metro’, The Age, 15 August 2007
Crawford, Ashley, ‘Suburban Vernacular’, exhibition catalogue essay
2006 ‘The Australian Art Market Report’, The Australian, Issue 20, Winter 2006
2005 ‘Collector’, The Wentworth Courier, 30 November 2005
‘The Australian Art Market Report’, The Australian, Issue 18, Summer 2005
Backhouse, Megan, ‘Metro’, The Age, 26 October 2005
Wise, Kit ‘Nathan Taylor: Concrete Poetics’, catalogue essay
164 165
2004 Crisp, Lindall, ‘Arts’, The Financial Review, 7 October 2004
Murray, Laura in State of the Arts, October–December 2004
2003 ‘Review’, The Saturday Mercury, 22 November 2003
Kennedy, Wendy in The Mercury, 17 November 2003
Naidoo, Meryl in The Mercury, 31 October 2003
2002 The Mercury 20th December 2002
2001 Andersch, Joerge, ‘Review’, The Saturday Mercury, 23 June 2001
Australian Art Collector, Issue 17, July–September 2001
MEDIA
2009 ‘Your Money Your Call’, Sky News, profile segment with Michael Reid and David Cook
2008 936 ABC Radio Hobart, radio interview with Annie Warburton
Edge FM, radio interview with Wayne Brookes
2003 ‘Love This Place’, Southern Cross Television, television segment with Wendy Kennedy
2001 936 ABC Radio Hobart, radio interview with Tim Cox
ARTIST TALKS
2012 Belle magazine Artist Dinner [part of Art Month Sydney]
2011 Island Art Collection
2010 University of Tasmania
Hobart College
The Friends’ School
His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood
2011
Pastel on paper
76 x 112 cm Private commission
164 165
2004 Crisp, Lindall, ‘Arts’, The Financial Review, 7 October 2004
Murray, Laura in State of the Arts, October–December 2004
2003 ‘Review’, The Saturday Mercury, 22 November 2003
Kennedy, Wendy in The Mercury, 17 November 2003
Naidoo, Meryl in The Mercury, 31 October 2003
2002 The Mercury 20th December 2002
2001 Andersch, Joerge, ‘Review’, The Saturday Mercury, 23 June 2001
Australian Art Collector, Issue 17, July–September 2001
MEDIA
2009 ‘Your Money Your Call’, Sky News, profile segment with Michael Reid and David Cook
2008 936 ABC Radio Hobart, radio interview with Annie Warburton
Edge FM, radio interview with Wayne Brookes
2003 ‘Love This Place’, Southern Cross Television, television segment with Wendy Kennedy
2001 936 ABC Radio Hobart, radio interview with Tim Cox
ARTIST TALKS
2012 Belle magazine Artist Dinner [part of Art Month Sydney]
2011 Island Art Collection
2010 University of Tasmania
Hobart College
The Friends’ School
His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood
2011
Pastel on paper
76 x 112 cm Private commission
PLATES
PLATES
168 169
Self portrait II 2002 Pastel on paper 195 x 130 cm
One more swing 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Queen’s birthday celebration 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Victa trouble 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Crease 2002 Acrylic on canvas board 45 x 35 cm
Kids stay free 2003 Acrylic on board 55 x 100 cm
Be my guest 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Business and pleasure 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Rest assured 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 90 cm
Home and hosed 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
This moment still 2004 Acrylic on board 60 x 110 cm
My pleasure 2004 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Wish you were here 2004 Acrylic on board 60 x 110 cm
Sticks and stones 2004 Acrylic on board 80 x 130 cm
In your best interests 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
With friends like these 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
In the first place 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
From little things 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
One size fits all 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Open all hours 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
In the long run 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
At all costs 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Return to sender 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Out of order 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Next to godliness 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
First come, first serve 2006 Acrylic on board 75 x 150 cm
Leading the blind 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Use only as directed 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Come to terms 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
By appointment only 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
No love lost 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
To say the least 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
No rest for the wicked 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
On the safe side 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
One for the team 2007 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Count your blessings 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
168 169
Self portrait II 2002 Pastel on paper 195 x 130 cm
One more swing 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Queen’s birthday celebration 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Victa trouble 2001 Acrylic on board 100 x 100 cm
Crease 2002 Acrylic on canvas board 45 x 35 cm
Kids stay free 2003 Acrylic on board 55 x 100 cm
Be my guest 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Business and pleasure 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Rest assured 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 90 cm
Home and hosed 2003 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
This moment still 2004 Acrylic on board 60 x 110 cm
My pleasure 2004 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Wish you were here 2004 Acrylic on board 60 x 110 cm
Sticks and stones 2004 Acrylic on board 80 x 130 cm
In your best interests 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
With friends like these 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
In the first place 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
From little things 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
One size fits all 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Open all hours 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
In the long run 2005 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
At all costs 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Return to sender 2005 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Out of order 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Next to godliness 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
First come, first serve 2006 Acrylic on board 75 x 150 cm
Leading the blind 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Use only as directed 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Come to terms 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
By appointment only 2006 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
No love lost 2006 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
To say the least 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
No rest for the wicked 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
On the safe side 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
One for the team 2007 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Count your blessings 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
170 171
Safety in numbers 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
By the way 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
David Edgar 2007 Pastel on paper 93.5 x 70.5 cm
Bill Taylor 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize
Gill Taylor 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Wayne Brookes 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize 2008 and as part of the City of Hobart Art Prize 2009
Jane Barlow 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Bree Mooney 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Dale Richards 2007 Pastel on paper 93.5 x 70.5 cm
Close to home 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Priced to clear 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Metro Art Award 2008
Make ends meet 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Beyond the pale 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Subject to finance 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
On the bright side 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Bare with me 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Blessing in disguise 2008 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Taken to heart 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Force of habit 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Learn your lesson 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Never the less 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Cut your losses 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Once in a while 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Good things come 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Off the record 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Off by heart 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship 2010
Turn a blind eye 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Dead to the world 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Fletcher Jones Art Prize 2010
Change of heart 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Redlands Westpac Art Prize 2010
Survival of the fittest 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Run the risk 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
No hard feelings 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Value of suffering 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011
Worried to death 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
170 171
Safety in numbers 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
By the way 2007 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
David Edgar 2007 Pastel on paper 93.5 x 70.5 cm
Bill Taylor 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize
Gill Taylor 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Wayne Brookes 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm Exhibited as part of the Tasmanian Youth Portraiture Prize 2008 and as part of the City of Hobart Art Prize 2009
Jane Barlow 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Bree Mooney 2007 Pastel on paper 70.5 x 93.5 cm
Dale Richards 2007 Pastel on paper 93.5 x 70.5 cm
Close to home 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Priced to clear 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Metro Art Award 2008
Make ends meet 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Beyond the pale 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Subject to finance 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
On the bright side 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Bare with me 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Blessing in disguise 2008 Acrylic on board 60 x 120 cm
Taken to heart 2008 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Force of habit 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Learn your lesson 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Never the less 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Cut your losses 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Once in a while 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Good things come 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Off the record 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Off by heart 2009 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship 2010
Turn a blind eye 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Dead to the world 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Fletcher Jones Art Prize 2010
Change of heart 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Redlands Westpac Art Prize 2010
Survival of the fittest 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Run the risk 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
No hard feelings 2010 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Value of suffering 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2011
Worried to death 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
172 173
Serve you right 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
New-found freedom 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Running on empty 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Loved to death 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2012
Speak of the devil 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize) 2012
Supply and demand 2012 Acrylic on board 40 x 80 cm
Untitled i 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled ii 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Mount Eyre Prize 2010
Untitled iii 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled iv 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled v 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled vi 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled vii [I scream, you scream] 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the CLIP Award 2010 and the Mount Eyre Prize 2011
Untitled viii 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled ix 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled x 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled xi 2011 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
Untitled xii 2011 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood 2011 Pastel on paper 76 x 112 cm
172 173
Serve you right 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
New-found freedom 2011 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Running on empty 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm
Loved to death 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the John Fries Memorial Prize 2012
Speak of the devil 2012 Acrylic on board 50 x 100 cm Exhibited as part of the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize (formerly Fletcher Jones Art Prize) 2012
Supply and demand 2012 Acrylic on board 40 x 80 cm
Untitled i 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled ii 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Mount Eyre Prize 2010
Untitled iii 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled iv 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled v 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled vi 2008 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled vii [I scream, you scream] 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the CLIP Award 2010 and the Mount Eyre Prize 2011
Untitled viii 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled ix 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled x 2010 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6
Untitled xi 2011 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
Untitled xii 2011 Digital print 56 x 90 cm Edition of 6 Exhibited as part of the Corangamarah Art Prize 2011
His Excellency The Honourable Peter Underwood AC, Governor of Tasmania, and Mrs Underwood 2011 Pastel on paper 76 x 112 cm
CONTRIBUTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
177
Dr Wayne BrookesArtist and visual arts teacher, Hobart College, Tasmanian Academy, Australia
Emily CloneyArt writer and editor, co-author Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? (2011)
Ashley CrawfordArts writer and author of Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley (1997), Wimmera: The Work of Philip Hunter (2002), Gelderland: The Work of Stephen Bush (2007), First Life (2011)
Dr Peter HillArtist and art writer,Adjunct Professor of Fine Art, RMIT University, Australia
John McDonaldArt critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, author The Art of Australia Vol. 1: Exploration to Federation (2009)
Michael ReidArt market commentator, art educator and art dealer, author How to Buy & Sell Art (2008), co-author Reid’s guide to Australian art galleries (2005) and Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? (2011)
Dr Kit WiseArtist, art writer and curator. Associate Dean of Education and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Monash University, Australia.
Photography of artworks
Jeremy DillonSimon CuthbertPeter Angus Robinson
177
Dr Wayne BrookesArtist and visual arts teacher, Hobart College, Tasmanian Academy, Australia
Emily CloneyArt writer and editor, co-author Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? (2011)
Ashley CrawfordArts writer and author of Spray: The Work of Howard Arkley (1997), Wimmera: The Work of Philip Hunter (2002), Gelderland: The Work of Stephen Bush (2007), First Life (2011)
Dr Peter HillArtist and art writer,Adjunct Professor of Fine Art, RMIT University, Australia
John McDonaldArt critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, author The Art of Australia Vol. 1: Exploration to Federation (2009)
Michael ReidArt market commentator, art educator and art dealer, author How to Buy & Sell Art (2008), co-author Reid’s guide to Australian art galleries (2005) and Australian Art: Who, What, When, How Much? (2011)
Dr Kit WiseArtist, art writer and curator. Associate Dean of Education and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Monash University, Australia.
Photography of artworks
Jeremy DillonSimon CuthbertPeter Angus Robinson
‘The colours may be bright but these paintings provide a window onto a world rapidly subsiding into picturesque decay.’
John McDonald, Art critic and author
‘Nathan Taylor’s paintings seduce the viewer....He lifts tired signifiers of the domestic into a more rarefied realm through his compositions.’
Kit Wise, Senior lecturer in Fine Art,
Monash University
‘The colours may be bright but these paintings provide a window onto a world rapidly subsiding into picturesque decay.’
John McDonald, Art critic and author
‘Nathan Taylor’s paintings seduce the viewer....He lifts tired signifiers of the domestic into a more rarefied realm through his compositions.’
Kit Wise, Senior lecturer in Fine Art,
Monash University