Repudiating distinctions between craft and high art, and transcending both marquetry (wood inlay) and painting, the meticulously crafted works of Alison Elizabeth Taylor are as much about seeing as they are about making. Juxtaposing the over-the-top connotations of this ancient craft with dystopian images of blighted desert landscapes, anonymous subdivisions, glitzy casinos and seedy cocktail lounges, Taylor creates a tension between surface and subject, appearance and reality. The splendor of the shellacked wood invites us to consider the innate humanity of marginalized subjects we might otherwise overlook as well as the often-ignored impact of a boom-and-bust economy on American life and culture.
Featuring insightful essays by leading curators and writers, this fully illustrated publication traces the evolution of the artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor: The Sum of It