Katherine Taylor’s Reflective Plane on view at Center for Art & Theatre Sept. 28 – Oct. 20

August 16, 2017

Katherine Taylor’s “Park Median,” oil on cavnas

Atlanta-based artist Katherine Taylor, known for her powerful and sometimes ominous paintings, challenges perceptions with her exhibition “Reflection Plane,” on view at Georgia Southern University’s Contemporary Gallery at the Center for Art & Theatre from Sept. 25 to Oct. 20.

The public is invited to learn more about Taylor and her work during an Artist Talk on Oct. 19 at 5 p.m. in Arts Building, room 2071. A reception will follow at 6 p.m. at the Center for Art & Theatre.

“Reflection Plane” acknowledges the deep influence our perception of the landscape has on the environment. The paintings depict engineered spaces that mirror the boundaries of sky and water, always directing attention back to the surface. The works show direct observations framed, snapped or stopped in action with intact portions of railings, pools, signs or concrete structures grounding the view.

“I paint with an awareness of the emotional territory of our shifting physical world,” said Taylor. “The paintings operate with perceptions of distance to bring abstract surfaces into being by accessing illusions of moving space with fixed impressions of deep space. Coupled with the geometry that orders our lives, these images in painting examine the environmental conditions of our world.”

Taylor’s work has been featured in numerous publications including “New American Paintings,” “Art Papers,” “The Boston Globe” and the newly published book “Painted Landscapes: Contemporary Views.” Her work has also been included in exhibitions internationally, including the Quebec City Biennale, Quebec, Canada; Diverseworks, Houston, Texas; The Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia; Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, Georgia; and at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Atlanta and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I am excited to exhibit Taylor’s work here at Georgia Southern,” said Gallery Director Jason Hoelscher. “Taylor’s paintings are an intriguing mix of eras and implications that take some time and consideration to detect. They initially look like abstract works but are in fact fairly representational, which lends them a spatial complexity not often found in, say, modernist approaches to pictorial flatness. At the same time, the works play interesting games with the notion of a painted surface, a painterly agenda that complicates the relationship between the painting as an object covered with paint, and an imaginary window through which we view a painted scene.”

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) is the largest of the eight colleges that make up Georgia Southern University, and it plays a central role in every student’s core of knowledge. CLASS, also described as the University’s College of the Creative Mind, prepares students to achieve academic excellence, develop their analytical skills, enhance their creativity and embrace their responsibilities as citizens of their communities, their nations and the world. CLASS offers more than 20 undergraduate degrees and several interdisciplinary minors from its 11 departments and five academic centers. CLASS offers eight master’s degrees, two graduate certificates and one doctoral degree. For more information, visit class.georgiasouthern.edu.

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/Research University founded in 1906, offers 118 degree programs serving 20,673 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement. Georgia Southern is recognized for its student-centered and hands-on approach to education. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.