Michael Taylor & The Book of Immediate Nonsense

The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Collection #10

2012-01-21T11:06:00.000+02:00

Back to its roots, The Book of Immediate Nonsense #10 has just been published online at my site.

London Art Fair 2012

2012-01-08T12:56:00.000+02:00

Kicking off the year, a new series of my paintings will be shown at London Art Fair's ART PROJECTS from 18 - 22 January 2012 - WHATIFTHEWORLD / GALLERY (Stand P9). Visit my site to get a better idea of what will be exhibited.

Jesus is a Londoner, Michael Taylor (2011), Acrylic on board, 120cm x 81cm

A Natural Selection

2011-11-16T21:28:00.000+02:00

The second installment of the AVA Gallery's 40th Anniversary exhibitions, called A Natural Selection, opens Monday 21 November at 6pm. It coincides with a WELCOME SUMMER party in the Church street area right by the gallery. Here's a picture of my painting that's part of the show.


Sundowners, Michael Taylor 2011, Acrylic on board, 45cm x 40cm

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=309559192388542
http://www.ava.co.za

Don't be afraid of the dark

2011-11-04T11:10:00.000+02:00

Honest Chocolate asked me to illustrate the wrapper for their new 88% pure cacao bar - which they cleverly named 'Don't be afraid of the dark'. And this was the result - my Dracula-style picture.

Don't be afraid of the dark, Michael Taylor 2011, pencil on paper, 20cm x 28cm

Joburg Art Fair 2011

2011-09-16T11:09:00.000+02:00

The FNB Joburg Art Fair takes place from 23 - 25 September at the Sandton Convention Centre. Make sure to visit Whatiftheworld Gallery's stand to see some of my new paintings.

The Book of Immediate Nonsense #9

2011-08-06T12:09:00.000+02:00

The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Collection #9 has just been published online at my site. This collection features a series of interpretative pictures for a short story by Yolande Botha, called 'The Great Dame' (first published in 2010 on her blog, Five Minute Fictions).

'The Gifted' launch event

2011-07-08T13:47:00.000+02:00

Thanks to everyone who made it to the launch event of the picture books yesterday evening. It was a massive success. Visit the Warren Editions studio, or contact them for details to view and purchase The Gifted. http://www.warreneditions.com/?p=1337

'Sunday' from The Gifted, Michael Taylor & Warren Editions 2010

Elle Decoration Blog

2011-07-08T13:28:00.000+02:00

Link here to a recent Q&A feature of my interests and current projects, on the South African Elle Decoration blog: http://elledecoration.co.za/2011/07/michael-taylor-qa/

The Gifted

2011-07-08T10:19:00.000+02:00


The Gifted - Title page design (Copyright 2010 Michael Taylor & Warren Editions)

'Saturday (The huntress)', from The Gifted, 2010

My picture book The Gifted, hand-printed and published by Warren Editions, will be launched on the evening of Thursday 7 July at the WE Studio in Cape Town. Visit this link for more details of the event: http://www.warreneditions.com/?p=1337

'The Tenacious Tree Huggers' extended

2011-05-29T16:26:00.000+02:00

Lucifer is in St. Moritz, Michael Taylor, 2011, Acrylic on board, 120cm x 81cm

My current solo exhibition of paintings, The Tenacious Tree Huggers, at Whatiftheworld Gallery, has been extended until mid-June. The gallery is situated in Woodstock, Cape Town.

To view the work on the show online, visit my site www.michaeltaylor.co.za

Monotypes 2011

2011-05-14T15:28:00.000+02:00

This new body of monotypes, created at Warren Editions during March 2011, consists of three parts: a series of large watercolour prints – ‘The Suburbanite Birds of Paradise’ – which is part of a recent solo exhibition called ‘The Tenacious Tree Huggers’, characterising everyday people in bird-like attitudes; another series of man-meets-bird images, called ‘Birds of a Feather’, a playful visual experiment wherein avian features or expressions are identified in drawings of people and emulated in a mirrored shape; and a series of monochromatic prints which follows on from previous investigations of chine-collé techniques.

The Tenacious Tree Huggers

2011-04-14T17:33:00.000+02:00

My new solo exhibition opens Wednesday 20 April 2011 at Whatiftheworld Gallery from 18h00 - 20h00. Everyone in the Cape Town area is welcome to join us for the event. The opening celebrations will continue afterwards at Superette, next door to the gallery in Woodstock.

The Tenacious Tree Huggers - Preview #2

2011-04-04T16:03:00.000+02:00

About the theme, 'The tenacious tree huggers', for my upcoming solo exhibition at Whatiftheworld Gallery - opening 20 April 2011:

'The ironic exhibition title invites viewers to look at the body of work as a parody of our relationship with nature. Trying desperately to hold on to something that we feel part of, yet inherently misunderstand. The title’s derogatory reference is used as a satirical pun emphasising the ease with which we quip about stereotypes. The organic play, active in the exhibition title, is extended to the naming of the individual works. These titles invoke contradiction and humour as a means to interrogate notions around the human condition.'

The Tenacious Tree Huggers - Preview

2011-03-24T13:38:00.000+02:00

'The tenacious tree huggers' opens Wednesday 20 April 2011 at 18h00, Whatiftheworld Gallery - Cape Town.

'The tenacious tree huggers, portray a cast of awkward characters and their relationships to their personal environments. The paintings are character sketches of individuals struggling against the unpredictable ways of nature. These imagined people are not only confounded by the shifting occurrences within their environments, they are also troubled by their own individual natures. Through facial expressions and the powerful language of physical exaggeration, the portraits express misguided ideas around environmental ‘friendliness’, feelings of irresponsibility, indifference toward a changing world, and the concept of ageing.'

Upcoming exhibition - April 2011

2011-03-13T09:41:00.000+02:00

My upcoming exhibition of new paintings, entitled 'The tenacious tree huggers', opens 20 April 2011 at Whatiftheworld Gallery in Cape Town. These new works, somewhat larger than usual, portray a series of imaginary characters and an ironical relationship between them and nature.

Building up to the opening, I'll be posting images from the exhibition here, and give further details of what the show is about.

Image: 'In deep with creepy' from my new body of work, The tenacious tree huggers

2 0 1 1

2011-02-05T11:50:00.000+02:00

Above is a sketch, a taster, for a body of work that will be exhibited during April 2011. The show of paintings is entitled 'The tenacious tree huggers', and will be shown at Whatiftheworld Gallery in Cape Town.

Also this year, Warren Editions will publish 'The Gifted' - a picture book that I completed last year. It tells the story of a real die-hard character and her love of the great outdoors.

A special edition of The Book of Immediate Nonsense also in the pipeline - let's hope I'm granted necessary permissions.

I'll keep you posted.

www.whatiftheworld.com | www.warreneditions.com

MONOTYPE

2010-12-09T12:00:00.000+02:00

MONOTYPE, and exhibition of monotype prints created in collaboration with Warren Editions studio runs from 13 December 2010 till 21 January 2011 at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town. The show features new monotype and chine colle style prints that I made during the first half of this year, with the help of Zhane Warren and Sara-Aimee Verity. The exhibition also includes works by Sanell Aggenbach and Georgina Gratrix.

Please follow this link to view an online catalogue of the MONOTYPE exhibition / visit the AVA Gallery website:

http://www.warreneditions.com/?page_id=1329

http://www.ava.co.za

The Book of Immediate Nonsense

2010-11-24T18:13:00.000+02:00

Pages from The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Collection #8

http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/nonsense_index.htm

The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Collection #8

2010-11-24T18:05:00.000+02:00

The Book of Immediate Nonsense, collection 8, was published online earlier this month. Visit my site to view the full flipbook.

http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za

Art South Africa magazine

2010-10-13T14:02:00.000+02:00


ART SOUTH AFRICA - Volume 9, Issue 1

'King of the jumble' is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Art South Africa magazine. Inside, be sure to read Michael Smith's article about my paintings, and the work of Georgina Gratrix's, in the essay entitled 'In a sea of possibilities'.

The Menippean Uprising

2010-09-06T10:35:00.000+02:00

I'll be participating in a group show called 'The Menippean Uprising', taking place at blank projects in Cape Town. Artthrob describes it as follows:

'The Menippean Uprising' explores the idea of the imaginary, the unreal and the fantastical, focusing on artworks that are of an escapist nature; works that intuitively venture toward the irrational, the grotesque, the pleasurable.

The title of the exhibition references Menippean Satire, one of the earliest genres of fantastic literature, and aims to illustrate the power that fantastical artworks have in framing contemporary issues in new ways, while interrogating some of the traditional reservations of the genre. These reservations include the mutual dependency of realism and the fantastic, the subservience of fantastical art to literature and mythology, and the perilous proximity of the fantastical sublime to its populist counterpart - fantasy.

The following artists will exhibit works in a variety of media and presentation strategies: Steve Bandoma, Belinda Blignaut, Dirk Bell, Anja De Klerk, Adriaan de Villiers, Pierre Fouché, Alice Goldin, Liza Grobler, Walter Oltmann, Mendisa Pantsi, Michael Taylor, Hentie van der Merwe, Dale Washkansky and Niklas Wittenberg.

09 September - 02 October

Visit the blank projects site for further details:

http://www.blankprojects.com

The Lion's Den

2010-08-23T10:33:00.000+02:00

An exhibition of a new series of paintings, entitled The Lion's Den, opens Saturday 28 August at Worldart Gallery in Cape Town.

Description of the show:
The Lion’s Den is an exhibition of twelve medium sized acrylic paintings for which concepts from popular astrology has been appropriated to create a series of personal narratives. These images are interpretations of the generalisations of human characteristics as seen specifically through the eyes of one character, the Leo.

This common iconographic visual language and rich symbolic pseudoscience is an ideal area of shared cultural knowledge from which to draw personalised parodies that represent modern society. Working in my usual ironic illustrative manner, the paintings subvert a common perception of horoscopic astrology. And more likely than not, the pictures will employ the languages of nonsense and abstraction to communicate a personal attitude.

To preview works on the show, follow this link:
http://www.worldart.co.za/artists/artist.asp?ID=54

Recent monotypes

2010-08-11T15:06:00.000+02:00

Visit the Warren Editions site to view my recent monotype prints. The series of 23 works was created over the course of the last five months. The image shown here, entitled 'Early morning spooky', is a large-scale monotype created to accompany the character from my soon to be published picture book, 'The gifted'; also Warren Editions.

http://www.warreneditions.com

The Book of Immediate Nonsense 7

2010-07-20T12:25:00.000+02:00

A new collection of 'The Book of Immediate Nonsense' has just been been published online at my site. It features unseen sketches part of the 'Comeback Boys' body of work.

http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/nonsense_index.htm

COMEBACK BOYS pictures

2010-06-14T10:59:00.000+02:00

All images from the COMEBACK BOYS show, have been uploaded for viewing to the Drawings & Collage page on my site.

http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/drawings_and_collage.htm

Photo credit: Jo Halse

COMEBACK BOYS

2010-06-03T10:17:00.000+02:00

'Comeback boys' is an exhibition of miniature portraits of imaginary men and invented idols. An ensemble of fictional, yet quintessential, heroes, icons, alter egos, and assorted gentlemen. The young men in these images represent the cast from a stereotypical tragicomedy – which in this case is, the legend of the modern man.

These character sketches serve as a sort of regimen for the artist, a catalogue of actors who form part of Taylor’s picture lexicon, and every so often make an appearance his work. In ‘Comeback boys’ they are portrayed in intimate, miniature works on paper, suggesting a kind of specimen of contemporary, masculine identities.

In the process of selecting works for the show, Taylor wanted to draw together the variety of mediums he investigates when working on paper: ranging from simple pencil sketches to monotype prints, the show looks at how different drawing mediums inform the characterization of the male subjects.

Opens Wednesday 9 June 2010 @ 18h30

CO-OP http://www.co-opjoburg.com

68 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg | +27 11 023 0336

Wednesday to Friday 10:00 – 17:00 & Saturday 10:00 – 14:00 (Or by appointment)

Coming up...

2010-03-29T12:57:00.000+02:00

Upcoming EXHIBITIONS and PROJECTS in 2010:

MARCH - JOBURG ART FAIR with João Ferreira Gallery; a couple of recent paintings from a new series I'm working on entitled, 'The disenchanted artists'

http://wwwjoburgartfair.co.za

APRIL - CURRENT MATTERS group exhibition at Grande Provence Gallery in Franschhoek

http://www.grandeprovence.co.za/gallery-and-art-franschhoek

JUNE - COMEBACK BOYS, solo show of works on paper at CO-OP in Johannesburg
http://www.co-opjoburg.com or http://www.whatiftheworld.com

SEPTEMBER - solo show at WorldArt Gallery, called THE LION's DEN

http://www.worldart.co.za

SEPTEMBER - THE MENIPPEAN UPRISING group exhibition at blank projects

http://www.blankprojects.com

THE GIFTED, an artist's PICTURE BOOK published by Warren Editions - released in the second half of this year

New MONOTYPES published in collaboration with Warren Editions, available from June 2010

http://www.warreneditions.com

And, of course, a new collection / special edition of

THE BOOK OF IMMEDIATE NONSENSE

The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Special Edition, VISITOR

2009-12-22T09:31:00.000+02:00

Visitor

Not quite the end of November, as originally promised, but because I wanted to publish as many of the drawings possible - created during my one day residency at the Irma Stern Museum - a double volume, special edition of The Book of Immediate Nonsense is now available for viewing.

'Visitor' is the result of a one day artists residency programme conceptualised as part of artist Liza Grobler’s solo exhibition, with the same name, held at the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town - October 2009.

My idea, for the day spent in Stern’s downstairs Drawing Room, was to create a series of rapid sketches in response to the portrait paintings displayed on the walls. They are reactionary drawings that confront the depicted subjects as would a ghost, an unexpected visitor, or an imaginary friend. In many cases more than one drawing was made for a particular painting, and I approached the series in a chronological manner – as they are shown on the walls.

These sketches are not intentionally subversive, or meant as puns in any way, but merely, a playful engagement with the subjects present in the room and, as The Book of Immediate Nonsense would have it, my way of acknowledging one of our country’s memorable artists.

Note: I have given most of my drawing new titles; and where appropriate I have put Stern’s label in parenthesis.

Additional links:
www.dayresidencies.blogspot.com
www.lizagrobler.co.za

Best of 2009

2009-12-09T12:32:00.000+02:00

Currently on my site:

See the pick of my favourite paintings - of my own work - from 2009;

and works that are still available to purchase.

Upcoming exhibitions:

'The Crab' will be shown as part of UCA Gallery's SUMMER SALON exhibition. It opens Wednesday 16 December.

( Follow this link for more details http://www.ucagallery.com/index.html )

ANGELS4GOOD at Grande Provence

2009-11-23T15:29:00.000+02:00

This painting, entitled 'The objection', is one of two of my works that will be part of this year's ANGELS4GOOD exhibition at The Gallery at Grande Provence in Franschhoek. The opening takes place on Sunday 29 November from 11am. Featuring work by a number of contemporary South African artists, it hopes to raise awareness and money for Make A Difference Foundation.

Visit the following link for more details:

http://www.grandeprovence.co.za/gallery-and-art-franschhoek/Future-Exhibitions.html

Image details: 'The objection', 2009, gouache on board, 60cm x 60cm

New monotypes - Warren Editions

2009-11-02T09:54:00.000+02:00

“Beginning October was my second time making monotypes at Warren Editions and again it was an absolute pleasure working in the WE printmaking environment. This time round I wanted to try make larger prints and explore the watercolour-based monotype process more vigorously." ...

Read more, and see all eight monotypes at

http://www.warreneditions.com/?page_id=91

Image (above): 'Crocodile cheers', monotype on Zerkall Bütten 250gsm, 54 x 76 cm

'A meeting' - the pictures

2009-10-29T09:38:00.000+02:00

Image update:

Images from the recent collaborative show with Joanne Halse, 'A meeting', have been uploaded to my website:

http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/pictures_new.htm

'Visitor' - One day residency

2009-10-22T15:23:00.000+02:00

Visitor

On Tuesday, 20 October, I partook in a one day residency at the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town. The visit formed part of Liza Grobler's latest solo exhibition, 'Visitor':

'The UCT Irma Stern Museum, or The Firs as she fondly called it, was the house of one of South Africa’s most renowned artists: Irma Stern. Here she lived, created and entertained. According to letters and anecdotes she was an inspiring and fiery character, but also a very tiring and demanding guest when she visited other homes!

Visitor opened on 3 October 2009. We celebrate Stern’s birthday (2 October) and her artistic output, but this is also a deliberate invasion of her home through continuous activity: I will host events, collaborate with colleagues and entertain in the lush garden of this museum-home… I too, shall overstay my welcome…

... Art making is a social practice: “Exhibition” implies “viewer”. I crowd sourced by inviting collaborators/guests/artists/friends. Somehow everyone’s involved… The exhibition will change daily: Objects, sounds, friends and acquaintances will occupy the space until the 24th of October. We celebrate human interaction and the slightly absurd tendency of life to connect a seemingly random list of events. '

(Text from Liza's press release for 'Visitor'; http://www.lizagrobler.co.za)

And I proposed the following for my intervention:

Michael plays the role of visiting 'portrait artist' for one day, creating rapid sketches in response to each of Stern's portrait paintings in the downstairs drawing room. These reactionary drawings confront Stern's subjects as would a ghost, an unexpected visitor, or an imaginary friend. The A6 journal pad drawings will then form the content for a special edition of Michael's online publication 'The Book of Immediate Nonsense'.

In the end, I managed to draw close to 50 miniature 'portraits' in response to a section of the downstairs drawing room's pictures. And I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to study Stern's paintings at much closer view. My pictures are not meant to be easy or literal associates of the portraits on the walls, but instead, they should be seen as reactionary interpretations, interruptions maybe, of the painted subjects.

A selection of the sketches made during this residency will be published under the same titles as Stern's portraits (unless in the case of an untitled work, for which I then will supply my own name) in a special edition of The Book of Immediate Nonsense at the end of next month.

To see what the other resident artists created during their visits, link to the event's blog: http://www.dayresidencies.blogspot.com

Pictured drawings: 'Koeksister' (L) and 'Mother and child' (R); both working titles

'A meeting' - Press Release

2009-09-25T12:13:00.000+02:00

‘A meeting’
collage and drawing works by JOANNE HALSE & MICHAEL TAYLOR

28 Sept - 16 Oct 2009
AVA Gallery, Cape Town

This collaborative exhibition by Joanne Halse and Michael Taylor is a consideration of the shared features of collage and drawing. In conjoining their preferred mediums, Halse - collage and Taylor - drawing, the artists illustrate the closeness between the processes of their two disciplines. The images that comprise the exhibition are presented as a series of paired narratives/conversations. The show in its entirety may also be read as an open narrative. Working without a specific text, or common theme, the artists set out to assimilate each other’s image-making processes and accentuate the pictorial devices which blur the distinctions between the two art forms.

The intention of the artists is to visually demonstrate the pleasure and intimacy involved in the making of collages and drawings. Each of the small abstract works on the show – be it something detailed or rudimentary – illustrates the reverence these two artists hold for their disciplines.

Invitation image: Landscape portrait, Joanne Halse (L) and Michael Taylor (R), Collage and drawing on found imagery, each measure 19cm x 14cm

http://www.ava.co.za

Michael Taylor - ArtThrob artbio

2009-09-25T11:43:00.000+02:00

By Katharine Jacobs

Michael Taylor is a master of many trades. As a painter, illustrator, printmaker, graphic designer and lecturer, his work certainly bears the influence of illustration, his visuals often veering off with narratives all of their own.

Taylor’s most recent solo exhibition, the aptly named ‘The Plot Thickens’ at Worldart in Cape Town, is a case in point. Here, a host of small scale paintings function like a compendium of short stories, brokering flash fiction for the eye. In one painting, a disdainful-looking moose stares out at the viewer from an acid yellow colour field. Save the Drama for your Mama declares his title, the contemptuous beast taking on a personality and a role in some kind of tragicomedy in painting.

... ( Read the entire bio at link below. )

http://www.artthrob.co.za/Artbio/Michael-Taylor-by-Katharine-Jacobs.aspx

BLACK - ArtThrob review

2009-09-25T10:28:00.000+02:00

BLACK: the antithesis of the fraudulent sensuality of culture's façade. An experiment in voluntary asceticism.

Liza Grobler, Mary Wafer, Hentie van der Merwe, Zander Blom, Kathryn Smith, Michael Taylor and Nomthunzi Mashalaba at blank projects

05 August - 25 August 2009

For blank’s last show in their Buitengracht Street space, the walls have been painted black. Ditto the floors and ceiling, and what with the blistering spotlights burning down from above, it’s a rather uncomfortable space to find oneself in. Standing on the floor in one corner a doll-sized figure captures the mood: she’s wreathed in layers of black and brown tights, unable to see out, yet seems to be gazing up at a sickle moon through a little jail window, drawn on the black wall with white chalk. This playful chalk drawing effectively turns the whole gallery into a jail; a touch of magical realism not unlike that of Robin Rhode.

For the show, curators Jonathan Garnham and Pierre Fouché challenged artists to undertake a vow of ‘voluntary asceticism’, producing work in black only. Being contrary by nature however, several of the artists took this as something of a challenge and Liza Grobler's Little White Lies is not the only work which shows signs of mutiny.

Nomthunzi Mashalaba’s Play along Nomthunzi suggests a childlike resistance not only to being told what to do, but also being pigeonholed by race. The work is housed in a beautiful bulbous glass globe, once a measuring device of some sort which Mashalaba found a laboratory throwing out. Inside, curled tightly like little balls of wool, are black, red, blue and multi-coloured pieces of fabric. Mashalaba’s works in fabric have previously critiqued the process colonial provenance of ‘shweshwe’ fabric and the like, and the confinement of these hard, tense little balls inside the glass measuring device seems to allude to a kind of passive resistance to colonising impulses.

The winner though, for the most elegant answer to the show’s theme – and idea I’m most annoyed about not having myself - goes to painter and illustrator, Michael Taylor. Taylor has taken discarded black photocopies, and folded and scored them so that the toner has rubbed off. The linear markings are minimal, yet spot-on, suggesting seascapes – or, in the image which comprises the flyer for this exhibition, but which sadly isn’t on show – Vegas spotlights.

As a free citizen, I escape Garnham’s gaol, and find the gallerist chatting outside. I ask how many coats of paint it’s going to take to make the gallery white again. 'I’m not looking forward to that', he chuckles, 'but it’s the last show in this space for blank' – the gallery will be relocating to one of two potential spaces in September – 'so we would have had to renovate anyway.' This is an ending then, for this stage of blank’s life, but not an ending for the gallery, which promises to continue its experimental agenda in its new premises.

By Katharine Jacobs

http://www.artthrob.co.za/Reviews/Review-of-Black--the-antithesis-of-the-fraudulent-sensuality-of-cultures-fa%C3%A7ade.--An-experiment-in-voluntary-asceticism.--by-Katharine-Jacobs-at-blank-projects.aspx

THE PLOT THICKENS - The Cape Times Review

2009-08-27T11:22:00.003+02:00

Toiling with change. Michael Taylor 2009. Gouache on board; 50cm x 43cm

ALLOW MICHAEL TAYLOR TO OPEN YOUR MIND

We depend on artists to take us to places that we can't imagine on our own, and the point of that trip is to extend the geography of our minds, hopefully with a dash of passion added to the excursion and with a pleasurable conclusion. In Michael Taylor's case, viewer emotional engagement is triggered by offbeat wit, and the visual journey successfully concluded with sly painterly manoeuvre. In fact, these gouache paintings - to which the title, The Plot Thickens, is a key pointer (and a clever bit of word play) - trace delightful games of the mind that negotiate the inventive space between text and image, as the gallery's media information rightly has it.

It's a happy space to be, one which, in authentic art fashion, gets the viewer to perform an important, cerebral role in pulling it all together. Taylor is a visual thinker. Illustration, in the proactive manner, is his thing. The pictures, of which each in this small show seem to work extremely hard to rejuvenate the very act of painting, are no wall-flowers, decorative (which they mostly are as well) and fleeting. They demand attention with their swirls of outrageous gestures and optical secrets. But to his schooled graphic mind, words are important for the "illustration" to work. Hence the importance of titles. Yes, the pictures come across playfully enough, but add Taylor's slinky labels, and the game is on.

"I regard this as entry-point into the work of art, from where the viewer proceeds to create meaning. However, for me the image-making process precedes naming or labelling of the image. "In most cases I deliberately choose titles which evoke something entirely different from what the image represents."

Evoke they do. Look at picture like Toiling with Change in which the rather forlorn schoolmarm-ish figure is certainly very visibly in-betwixt and between. Somewhat cartoonish, it nevertheless buzzes with a kind of depressed anxiety. Taylor can be naughty - referencing widely the existing art world and its history - and also challengingly ambiguous. The tension between what he says in text and what he says on canvas, and whether we believe him - or can decipher the puzzle meaningfully - is what makes him such a viewer's artist. No wonder he is such a favourite among the contemporary crowd.

He has shown himself a very skilled graphic inventor and printmaker, one which seldom loses the mystery of the image, no matter the media. There's something truly fresh, even naively so, about Taylor's way with visuals and words. Crisply imaginative, his paintings instantly hitch you along for that ride, opening your own mind. It's a pretty jolly trip.

- Melvyn Minnaar

Mail & Guardian review of 'The Plot Thickens' exhibition (18/08/09)
http://www.worldart.co.za

THE PLOT THICKENS - Mail & Guardian Review

2009-08-13T13:51:00.006+02:00

Save the drama for your mama. Michael Taylor 2009. Gouache on board; 50cm x 43cm

COOL WAY TO BE COOL

A good old fashion painter in the age of digital art, video boffs and smart-alecky conceptualists, Taylor, like Beck, is an artist at out of synch with the times. Yet, also like Beck, he’s harnessed this alienation to create a body of work that captures the ambiguities and slippages of the contemporary era more profoundly than most young artists. His new solo exhibition is no exception. The selection of works on show in The Plot Thickens are defiantly referential, combining the jazzy visual vocabulary of illustration and graphic design with the gestural freedom of Abstract Expressionism, all inside a figurative format. His sketchy, improvisatory technique often begins with a familiar visual motif. He then employs this image like a pop melody, letting it float loosely atop a ground made of more allusive elements, including moody blocks of colour and impressionistic dabs that have a dark undercurrent despite their playful jocularity. The real magic of his art however lies in the tension he creates between the images and their titles. As much a poet as a painter, Taylor gives his work self-effacing, playful, insecure and intimate titles that often seem strangely out of synch or at odds with the images. As Taylor explains, "I regard this as entry-point into the work of art, from where the viewer proceeds to create meaning.” The result is an utterly postmodern mix of parody, humour, intrigue and innuendo that conveys that it's best to be un-self-conscious, playful and even exuberant about being self-conscious, serious and almost weirdly reticent. Like Beck, he's figured out that it's okay to be sincere and ironic about something worth caring about, because irony doesn't have to be corrosive and because making fun of something a little protects it, makes it (and you) less vulnerable. Which is to say that Taylor embodies a very new, very now, very cool way to be cool.

- Miles Keylock
Mail & Guardian review of 'The Plot Thickens' exhibition (07/08/09)
http://www.theguide.co.za/arts_detail.php?artsid=4106

View all the work on the show at my website:
http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za

BLACK @ blank projects

2009-08-06T12:13:00.005+02:00

Michael Taylor. Vegas. 2009. Folded & agitated photocopy. 297 x 420mm.

...The old but battle-scarred hedonism in aesthetics has [...] zeroed in on what it claims to be a perverse implication of the ideal of blackness, namely the notion that the dark aspects of art ought to yield something approximating pleasure [...] Actually, the ideal of darkness does no more and no less than postulate that art properly understood finds happiness in nothing except its ability to stand its ground. This happiness illuminates the sensuous phenomenon from inside.. Just as in internally consistent works of art, spirit penetrates even the most impermeable phenomena, redeeming them sensuously, as it were, so blackness too - the antithesis of the fraudulent sensuality of culture's facade - has a sensual appeal.. There is more pleasure in dissonance than in consonance - a thought that metes out justice to hedonism, measure for measure.
-Theodor W. Adorno¹

What interests me is not the core but the potentialities of this core to multiply and expand infinitely. The diffusion of the core, its suppleness and elasticity, rebound, ramifications. Spanning, encompassing, space-devouring, star-trodden journeys, everything around and between the core.
-Anaïs Nin²

blank invited seven artists to engage in an experiment of voluntary asceticism, to produce an intimate work in which, formally, colour is reduced to black. The gallery will be painted entirely black for this exhibition. Zander Blom, Liza Grobler, Nomthunzi Mashalaba, Kathryn Smith, Michael Taylor, Hentie van der Merwe and Mary Wafer are participating.

http://www.blankprojects.com/current.php

The Plot Thickens

2009-08-06T12:00:00.005+02:00

(Press Release)

HUMOUR TAYLORED TO CONCEAL AND REVEAL

Michael Taylor is a young artist who is causing a stir in contemporary South African art. Over the past ten years he has rapidly progressed from a talented student to a highly successful artist and lecturer. A collection of his latest works, sporting a decidedly personal flair, will soon be on show at the Worldart Gallery in Cape Town's Church Street. This small but enterprising gallery is steadily becoming a hot spot, drawing a keen following of international clients who are au fait with current trends on the arts scene.

Taylor is fond of exploring the space between text and image. His often humorous works, touching on both the art of illustration, graphic design and figurative work, display qualities that attract the more established as well as the younger art aficionados. He has in fact already become a firm favourite among the younger collectors.

As an artist Taylor is particularly intrigued with the interplay between the visual image and the title: "I regard this as entry-point into the work of art, from where the viewer proceeds to create meaning. However, for me the image-making process precedes naming or labelling of the image. In most cases I deliberately choose titles which evoke something entirely different from what the image represents."

Taylor describes his work as self-reflexive, with humour serving as a tool to mask the more serious sides. He "reveals and conceals" at the same time, which could be described as a key element of his work. This ambiguity not only arrests the attention, but draws the viewer into a playful engagement with both the image and the artist's train of thought - while bringing the viewer's imagination into play. And as artists and art lovers very well know, the fun element is often linked to the "truth"!

With his latest works, Taylor enhances his impressive record as a young artist. Since 2001 he has participated in numerous exhibitions at leading galleries. In 2003 he was the winner of the ninth International Competition for Illustration in Italy. He has already produced a fine list of publications, while being actively involved as an artist, lecturer and freelance illustrator.

This stimulating series of works by a well-trained and dedicated artist deserves to be experienced by an even wider public. Taylor is not only upwardly mobile; he has in fact arrived with a bang. His new collection can be enjoyed and admired at Worldart from 30 July to 22 August.

http://www.worldart.co.za/

The Book of Immediate Nonsense no.6

2009-07-01T14:13:00.008+02:00

The Book of Immediate Nonsense - Collection no.6 (2009)
was recently published at michaeltaylor.co.za; find it here:
http://www.michaeltaylor.co.za/nonsense_boin6.htm