Wood-Grained Visions

Image courtesy James Cohan Gallery, copywrite Alison E. Taylor

Three adolescents cruise the desert, two holding browns, their forms defined by alternately striated skateboards while another steers a bike. It’s a and wave-like patterns of wood grain. familiar scene rendered in an unexpected way by Taylor’s knack for composing is cinematic, Brooklyn-based artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor. as if black-and-white movies were updated and Rather than loosely sketched watercolor or street- remade with puzzle pieces. The bikini-clad ladies inspired airbrush, Taylor uses marquetry, or wood in Swimming Pool seem caught in the middle of inlay, a meticulous process typically used for decora- action; one hand draped around a martini glass tive purposes and popular during the Renaissance. could have leapt from the screen of any number

A time-consuming technique, Taylor’s marquetry of movies. In Era of Argus, a tattooed man kneels involves cutting and shaping small bits of wood, to feed a peacock, its tail feathered with glistening arranging them precisely, and securing them with browns. A pair of hands reaches eerily from a sea resin and a vacuum press. Taylor uses wood veneer of dark wood, grain swirling like water, in Hands. as others might use paint, expertly choosing each Pairing an age-old practice or material with piece so that the color and grain lend depth and form. newfangled ideas has become de rigueur for many

For a 2008 exhibition at James Cohan Gallery young artists, and Taylor does it with elegant flair and in New York City, she constructed a room-sized precise workmanship. Through the monochromatic environment entirely from carefully fitted pieces cut lens of a wooden palette, she expresses loose narra-from more than 200 different types of wood. tives that often take on mythological dimensions.

This ambitious project had a daunting wow factor, —Annie Buckley yet the individual pictures resonate like dreams. In 29 Palms, the teens and the surrounding landscape are depicted in a seemingly endless array of

>> More Wood Work: jamescohan.com/artists/ alison-elizabeth-taylor

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