Rod Taylor

Rod Taylor, AM is a painter based in Adelaide.

Rod Taylor b.1944, is a retired Associate Professor of Flinders University and retired CEO Adelaide Central School of Art Incorporated, which he co-founded with his then wife, Heather Nicholson in 1982.

He studied art in SA at the South Australian School of Art and in London at St Martins School of Art.

In 1998 he was awarded a fellowship of the Council of University Art & Design Schools (ACUADS), and in 2010, he received the award of Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

He has work in both private and public collections. In 2008 Central Gallery held a survey of his paintings and drawings from 1980 to 2008.

Artist Statement

My work usually starts with an idea as either an arrangement of forms - almost invariably involving a figure, or figures - or a narrative suggested by an arrangement of figures in the act of something and sometimes a few salient objects.

When there is a “story” it never has a definite meaning. In fact, as long as it has some level of interest for me - without a definite understanding - its meaning in a literary/verbal sense is almost of no concern. It is simply a starting point.

The real meaning or intent of the work is almost always the communication of a sense of “otherness”; a sense of something beyond our ordinary awareness that moves us in some way.

When this is achieved it is through the process of actually making the work - that is, though the technical and aesthetic construction of the work. Most obviously it is marked by a “stillness” which, interestingly, given the essentially subjective nature of it all, seems to be commonly observable.

40 years ago I majored in sculpture and for a while, around 30 years ago, I ran a sculpture department. Then, for practical reasons more than anything else, I shifted to painting, which I majored in as a postgraduate student at St. Martins School of Art in London.

More recently, over the last few years since I retired as Head of School at Adelaide Central school of Art, I have been using computer generated imagery (CGI). The potential of this technology is truly amazing. It is capable of producing pictorial representations and, indeed, solid objects that would previously have been very difficult or even unfeasible to produce. It is very likely in fact, that the products of CGI will be seen in the future to define the pictorial representation - and perhaps the material culture in general - of our age.

Expressing the meaning of visual art succinctly in words is difficult. The best that I can say about the works in this show is that they are somehow about the mystery of things, expressed through craft and the play of formal properties such as space, shape and colour. I am aware of the objective, figurative nature of my inventions, but I don’t think much about their symbolic, literal or verbal meaning. I choose what to make unconsciously and am guided to manipulate them into a satisfying final state intuitively.
I have been working with software that creates and manages 3D forms for about 8 years now and feel that I am only just beginning to get some level of mastery to make things that I like. It has been a steep learning curve involving many complex processes and technical skills in a very rapidly evolving field.
I do what I do because it is somehow deeply, personally satisfying, but I hope that some of the results are enjoyed and valued by others.

Rod Taylor AM
2016

Solo Exhibitions

2016

"New Works" , Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide

2012
"New Works" , Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide