Jan Murphy Gallery is pleased to present ‘The Argument of the Eye’ by A.J. Taylor.
In ‘The Argument of the Eye’, A.J. Taylor presents landscapes from recent travels around Queensland, including Carnarvon Gorge and the Daintree Rainforest as well as his homebased Sunshine Coast hinterland.
“The works are closely observed and unambiguous depictions of specific landscapes – they could be nowhere else – but they are just as much about the process of seeing itself as they are about particular places. The title comes from a biography of John Ruskin, in which author Robert Hewison talks about the dialectic interaction between eye and mind in Ruskin’s thinking specifically (and in visual perception generally). I’m interested in how we make sense of the visual cues before us, using memory and knowledge to construct a recognisable whole from fragmented glimpses.
What we know, or think we know about a subject informs how we see that subject: we see what we expect to see. When unintelligible marks or disparate components seem to contradict the integrity of the image, we synthesise those parts into a unified whole. And it is this very real process of visual and mental synthesis – filling in the gaps of perception – that actively engages the viewer in a work of art.” – A.J. Taylor, 2023
A.J. Taylor has been a finalist in some of Australia’s most prestigious landscape prizes, including the Wynne Prize, Fleurieu Art Prize, John Glover Art Prize, the John Leslie Art Prize, and the Hawkesbury Art Prize. His artwork is represented in public and corporate collections, including the Parliament House Art Collection, Artbank, BHP Billiton, Macquarie Bank, Macquarie University and the Museum of Brisbane.
Image: A.J. Taylor, Fallen Leaves, Rocky Creek, 2023, oil on board, 183.0 x 138.0 cm
Image courtesy of Jan Murphy Gallery and A.J. Taylor
