Nicola Taylor a visual artist, will be showing a new body of work at Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg. Titled Root and Rise, Taylor explores human nature and the capacity to create and destroy.
One of the works in this exhibition is an interactive performance piece titled Act of Phoenix. It is an appreciation of the great and complex potential of human kind. It is a 3m wide, unset charcoal drawing of a tree, placed in a bare wood frame.
On the opening night, the audience will be encouraged to help complete the artwork by each adding a single smudge to the charcoal; effectively leaving their carbon print as well as their own unique artistic contribution. This piece represents a highly symbolic act of both destruction (trees are burnt to create charcoal) and creation (an image of a giant tree is made from charcoal, ‘from the ashes’).
Taylor, who was born in Johannesburg, first studied painting in Florence, Italy at the Scuola Lorenzo De Medici in 2003. Thereafter she obtained her BCom (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) from the University of Cape Town. During this time she undertook commissions. She went on to further study painting at the Art Academy in London. While In London she exhibited at Art in Action, the Art Academy Graduate Show 2009, and at the Royal Institute as part of a charity auction. In August 2010 she held her first solo show at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg.
Where: Everard Read Gallery
When: 6 June – 29 June
Contact: Call 011 788 4805 and e-mail gallery@everard.co.za
Leave a Comment