Already acknowledged for her contribution to contemporary drawing practice, with work selected in 2004 and again in 2009 for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, Sally Taylor’s exhibition, ‘Mouths and Triangles,’ opens an exciting programme of solo shows at Duckett and Jeffreys Gallery.
A considered and yet intuitive approach to mark making results in a highly personal visual language which communicates directly with the viewer. Taylor’s use of her body within these drawings is also apparent, bridging the imagination and resultant image, with gestural mark making acting as a reminder of the importance of physicality in the daily act of communication.
Sally Taylor (b. 1977, Bury, Lancashire)
Artist Statement
My drawings affirm a desire to understand more about human relationships, specifically my own interaction with others. They are equally about forming a balance between formal concerns and the creation of emotional resonance.
While issues, thoughts and feelings, which often evoke memory, personal history, fears and anxieties, are central concerns, it is their exploration through the specific language of drawing that informs the meaning. In this body of work, I have focused on recording and mapping social interaction. Through mark-making, I engage with humanistic themes as intimate or public dialogues are played out on the paper in an attempt to challenge the validity of language in articulating aspects of human experience.
Using a wide range of media including felt tips, crayons, biros, marker pens – I have also begun to investigate issues surrounding dialect and its associations. Primitive and ‘Outsider art’ have become significant influences as I aim to create work that embraces gesture and impulse in an attempt to achieve images that are raw, painterly and representative of a nervous energy. The intention is to avoid pre-meditation and ideology that could jeopardise the creative process with the ‘mouths’ used without regard to their potential connotations.
The values of selfhood and authenticity are central to my work, and the intimate relationship between artist and artwork is celebrated in a process that values that dialogical connection, and the revisiting of artworks and engaging with them over time. A desire for this considered relationship extends to the viewer also, in that while the work displays conspicuous references to the human presence, viewers are encouraged to test their own physicality against the work.
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Recent Exhibitions
2011
Group Show ‘Afternoon Tea’, WW Gallery at 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2011
Solo Show ‘Marks and Mouths’, PS2, MIMA – Middlesrough Institute of Modern Art UK, 2010-11
2010
Solo Show ‘Marks and Mouths’, PS2, MIMA – Middlesrough Institute of Modern Art UK, 2010-11
Group Show ‘Twelve Constellations’, Vulpes Vulpes Gallery, London
Group Show ‘Jerwood Drawing Prize 2009′:-
Jerwood Space, London; Bay Art, Cardiff; BP Atrium Gallery, Aberdeen;
Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon; Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge;
Summerfield Gallery, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
2009
Group Show Milton Keynes Painting Prize 2009 (inclusion in catalogue short-list)
Solo Show ‘aaa’, The Bowery, Leeds
Group Show ‘DIY’, Temporary Art Space, Halifax
Group Show ‘Personally Political: Drawing’, Tacheles, Berlin, Germany
Solo Show ‘Raising Voices’, South Bank Arts Centre, BCA Gallery, Bedford
Group Show Leeds Art Fair, The Light, Leeds
Solo Show Arc, Aspex, Portsmouth, Hampshire
Solo Show ‘What (Not) To Say’, Portsmouth Grammar School & Portsmouth Cathedral
(to coincide with Residency at Portsmouth Grammar School)
Group Show ‘800feet’, Space, Portsmouth University, Portsmouth
Solo Show ‘Say, Talk, Tell’, Machado Gallery, Barford, Warwickshire
2008
Solo Show ‘Draw Breath’, gASP, Art Space Portsmouth, Southsea
Group Show ‘A Thought’, Angelus Gallery, Winchester College, Winchester
Group Show 1000 Lakeside, North Harbour, Cosham, Portsmouth
Group Show ‘Works on Paper’, Gallery Fifty-Three, Knightsbridge, London
Group Show Gallery Fiftythree, Knightsbridge, London
2007
Solo Show ‘Duologue’, Michael West Gallery, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight
Solo Show ‘In Conversation’, Otter Gallery, University of Chichester, Chichester
Group Show ‘Sketch 2005’, Seven Seven Contemporary Art, London
2006
Group Show ‘Sketch 2005’, Rabley Contemporary Drawing Centre, Rabley, Wiltshire
2005
Group Show ‘Redundancy’, Access Aspex, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth
Solo Show ‘Flush’, Third Floor Arts Centre, Portsmouth
Group Show ‘Jerwood Drawing 2004′
Jerwood Space,London; University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham;
BayArt, Cardiff; MAC, Birmingham; EICH Gallery, Hull; The Lowry, Salford