Ayden Gallery - Peter Taylor

Peter Taylor

Divine Play – Peter Taylor Artist Statement

Peter Taylor’s new solo exhibition Divine Play marks a continuation of the artist’s fascination with spirituality viewed through the contemplative lens of recurring characters. As with his previous work, Taylor’s paintings focus on a single figure whose facial expressions and bodily positions exude a combination of playfulness and meditative contentment. With Divine Play, Taylor has presented his most cohesive and striking depiction of these figures to date: “these are my personal sages, Taylor explains. They represent “seeds sprouting knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. In light of his generation’s increasing tendency towards cynicism and disingenuousness, these characters are a breath of fresh air, not only encouraging contemplative reflection, but similarly eschewing cliché and taboo through the knowing humour of their expressions and unselfconscious activity.

Central to Taylor’s approach to spirituality is a self-aware ambiguity and openness—the paintings avoid heavy handedness and dogmatism in favour of the effect contained in a gesture and a glance. By depicting his figures at near-human scale, he encourages his audience to identify and interact, while recognizing at the same time the paradoxical nature of this approach: just as they approach human size, the characters defy proportion and verisimilitude by their at-times bizarre contortions and swollen features. Similarly, Taylor is aware of the appearance of naivety embodied in the expressions and gestures of his figures. But they should not be misconstrued as reflective of the artist’s naivety, nor of any perceived on the part of the audience—“these ideas are not my evasion or denial of our reality, assures Taylor. Rather, they are conduits in an exchange of ideas and impressions in a broader dialogue, encouraging us to reflect on our own fears and insecurities under the calming gazes of the host of wise sages.

The consistently large scale of the works in Divine Play (sizes range form 2.5 x 3 feet up to 4 x 6), reflect not only an anthropomorphic sensibility—any smaller and the characters might be perceived as gnomes rather than identifiably human—but an extension of the artist’s background in graffiti. Since his transition from street art to studio work in the last few years, Taylor has continued to work in large scale—since his technique with acrylic airbrush is very similar to that of spraypaint, the large scale allows him to retain many of his approaches to paint handling and layout, but to increase the level of detail to a large degree. His new works exhibit an engagement with pattern and ornament, along with subtle shading and linework, made possible by the technical precision of airbrush. Applied to the relatively simplistic and repeating character shapes, Taylor’s paintings evoke a sense of balance and complexity, contemplation and playfulness.

Peter Taylor recently exhibited during BC Fashion Week at the Scotia Bank Dance Center. In addition to showing regularly at the Ayden Gallery, he has also had a solo exhibition at El Kartel in the summer of 2005 and various group shows, including fall 2005 in Los Angeles and upcoming shows in Southern California, Los Angeles. He has also contributed works to traveling group shows, including “32 Inch Canvas, a large exhibition featuring artwork on skateboard decks, and “I Will Remain, a tribute to the late Johnny Cash; both traveled across Canada and the United States.

Basking (36"x48")

$800