Kyneton-based visual artist Ross Taylor will be representing Australia as a finalist in this year’s Sovereign Asian Art Prize held in Hong Kong.
The nomination-only prize is recognised as the most established and prestigious annual art award in Asia-Pacific and Taylor was one of 30 selected from a pool of 800 artists.
The selected artwork, Ember, is a painting inspired by the Black Hill bushfire in 2015 and its subsequent regeneration and follows on from his solo exhibition, Field Notes, at Bendigo Art gallery in 2020, which explored the history and culture of central Victoria in a series of large-scale drawings.
The artist references a mix of imagery, from childhood holiday spots, domestic scenes and the natural world, playfully interrogating notions of his own personal history and memory.
“From one work to the next, the composition is morphing, shifting, self-referencing and abstracting, all according to the process of remembering,” he said.
“I suppose my aim for the viewer is to draw upon the complexity of the image as a critical expression of recalling an experience.”
Taylor, who is a full-time practising artist and board member of the non-profit arts organisation Kyneton Contemporary, is currently working behind the scenes with the team to produce Kyneton’s second nine-day Art Triennial, Holding The Circle, opening in October this year.
The festival will see 11 commissioned artists selected from around Australia, respond to facets of the local area through a series of artworks exhibited in non-traditional spaces around Kyneton.
Taylor is represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery in Richmond, Melbourne and will have his next exhibition there, opening June 8.
To vote for Taylor’s work, go to: www.sovereignartfoundation.com/art-prizes/2021-edition
