Anita Taylor

Anita Taylor is an artist, educator and curator who studied at Mid-Cheshire College of Art, Gloucestershire College of Art & Technology, and Royal College of Art. She was Artist-in-Residence at Durham Cathedral [1987-88]; Cheltenham Fellow in Painting [1988-89]; and Artist-in-Residence with NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service and National Art School at Middle Head, Sydney [2004].  

Recent solo exhibitions include: 

Moonraker, Vision Art Platform, Istanbul, Türkiyë (2024-25); Anita 
Taylor, Vision Art Platform, London Art Fair (2025); Witness, Young Gallery, Salisbury, UK [2018]; DRAWN, The Customs House, South Shields, UK [2017]; Caesura, William Wright Artists Projects, Sydney, Australia [2014]; The Drawing Room, Sydney, Australia [2011]; Peter Pinson Gallery, Sydney, Australia [2009]; A mon seul désir: the tapestry paintings, The Drawing Gallery, Walford, UK [2009]; Seeing Something Else, The Drawing Gallery, London [2004]. Recent group exhibitions include: Asia Now, Vision Art Platform, Paris [2025]; Contemporary Istanbul, Vision Art Platform, Istanbul [2025]; WHAT is NOW?, Vision Art Platform, London [2025]; The Space In-Between, Église Saint-Laurent, Eygalières, France [2025]; Painter’s Painters, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia [2025]; CI Bloom, Vision Art Platform, Istanbul [2025]; Telling Stories: Heroine Mythology Recast, Wendy Sharpe & Anita Taylor, Drawing Projects UK [2025]; G.R.I.T. - Gestural Reflective Inquiring Tales, Kunstpunkt, Berlin & Drawing Projects UK, Dundee [2024]; Kazı İzleri / Lines of Site, Istanbul & tour to Dundee, Barcelona, Aksaray [2022] for which she made a series of large drawings in response to the Neolithic settlement of Aşıklı Höyük in Central Anatolia as part of an EU-funded project; Jerwood Gallery, Hastings [2016, 2014]; The Global Centre for Drawing, Langford120, Melbourne [2018, 2013, 2011]; Victoria & Albert Museum [2009].   

In 1987, she was selected for the Whitworth Young Contemporaries; in 1989, for the British Airways Most Promising Artists Awards and Christie’s New Contemporaries; was awarded the Malvern Award for Drawing [1993]; Drawing Award, Hunting Art Prize [1999]; and First Prize, Hunting Art Prize [2000]. Works are held in public collections that include the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts; Chippenham Museum; Victoria & Albert Museum; The Wilson Art Gallery & Museum (V&A Purchase Award); Royal West of England Academy; Jerwood Foundation; National Art School, Sydney; Royal College of Art. 
 
Founding Director of the annual Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition (1994-present, aka Jerwood Drawing Prize, 2001-17), she established Drawing Projects UK in 2009 to develop and promote research initiatives in drawing and as an independent centre dedicated to research and public engagement in drawing and contemporary art from 2015. In addition to curatorial and public programmes for Drawing Projects UK, she organised/curated: The Fourth Wall: Roland Hicks, Hastings Contemporary [2023-24]; Cloud falls in love with mortal: Penny McCarthy, Hastings Contemporary [2022-23]; Vanishing Point: Barbara Walker for Jerwood Gallery, Hastings with loans from the National Gallery in London [2018]; Rehearsing Catastrophe: The Ark In Somerset, a performance by Lyndal Jones for Illuminate Bath/The Holburne Museum [2014]; Drawn Together: Artist as Selector, Jerwood Gallery [2014]; Inscription: drawing-making-thinking, Jerwood Space London [co-curated Amanda Game, 2010]; Drawing Breath: 10 Years of the Annual Jerwood Drawing Prize that toured from London to Sydney, Singapore, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Bristol [2006-08]. 

A Professor of Fine Art since 2002, academic leadership roles include: Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee [2019-present]; Executive Dean, Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University [2013-19]; Director & Chief Executive Officer, National Art School, Sydney, Australia [2009-13]; Dean/Head of College, Wimbledon College of Art & Director of The Centre for Drawing, University of the Arts London [2006-09]; Vice Principal, Wimbledon School of Art [2004-06].  

List of works: 

• Portrait of Anita Taylor, The Drawing Gallery 
• Wives’ Tales: Deianira, 2024, oil on canvas, 228 x 182cm  
• Aeiral, 2025, oil on canvas, 228 x 182cm 
• The Fates, 2025, ink on paper, 76 x 56cm 
• The Keres, 2025, ink on paper, 76 x 56 cm
• Moonrakers, 2024, oil, ink, charcoal, oil pastel on canvas 240 x 240cm  
• Moonrakers – Capturing the Moon 2024, oil, ink, charcoal, oil pastel on canvas, 240 x 240cm  
• Searching (Moon & Mirror), 2025, oil on canvas, 228 x 182cm