ALISON ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Alison Elizabeth Taylor has become well-known for reinvigorating the Renaissance craft of marquetry, or intarsia wood inlay. By working in a medium typically associated with wealth and power to portray dystopian scenes of everyday life, Taylor creates tension between the luxurious connotations of the material and a certain abjectness in subject matter. As Taylor explains, “The tension between the subject and surface of the finished wood is what compels me. I use wood veneer to depict scenes, places, and people that are not typically represented in the medium. The natural beauty inherent in finished wood draws attention to themes more subtle or complex. A viewer can find dual associations with the opulence of Louis XIV and the squalor of wood laminate living. The splendor of the shellacked wood is an invitation to look at subjects the viewer might otherwise ignore.”
Alison Elizabeth Taylor was born in Selma, Alabama and grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received her BFA from the Art Cenber College of Design in Pasadena, CA and her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in New York, NY. In 2009, Taylor received both a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and the Smithsonian's Artist Research Fellowship Program Award. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster and at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah and Atlanta. In the past year she was also featured in a two-person exhibition at the South Eastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC and a four-person exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center. A major work of Taylor’s was acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AK and is included in their inaugural exhibition. In addition, Taylor has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at The National Academy Museum, New York; Exit Art, New York; Ambach and Rice Gallery, Seattle; Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles; 96 Gillespie's, London, United Kingdom. Taylor lives and work in New York
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