Kiyomi Quinn Taylor

Dream Logic

October 23–November 21, 2020


Steve Turner is pleased to present Dream Logic, a solo online exhibition featuring recent works by New York-based Kiyomi Quinn Taylor that combine drawing, painting and collage to form fantasy narratives which conflate family history with dinosaurs and Star Trek. She utilizes an archive of family photographs from the 1950s to 1970s which features African American relatives in New York, and Washington State and Japanese ones in Fukuoka, Japan. All four of her grandparents are frequently featured in her work because she sees them “as the genetic contributors and the emotional shapers of my parents’ psyches – the characters responsible for the creation of my world.” To Taylor, dinosaurs represent anxiety, one that relates both to the uncertainty of the future and the brutality of the past, and Star Trek represents the magic of a future fantasy. By juxtaposing emotionally-charged fictional and factual and imagery, Taylor collapses time along psychic, genetic, and poetic lines. 

Kiyomi Quinn Taylor (born 1995, South Orange, New Jersey) received a BFA from New York University (2017) and an MFA from Columbia University (2020). She has presented work in group exhibitions since 2016. Dream Logic is her first solo exhibition at Steve Turner. 

Kiyomi Quinn Taylor creates works that combine drawing, painting and collage to form fantasy narratives which conflate family history with dinosaurs and Star Trek. She utilizes an archive of family photographs from the 1950s to 1970s which features African American relatives in New York, and Washington State and Japanese ones in Fukuoka, Japan. To Taylor, dinosaurs represent anxiety, one that relates both to the uncertainty of the future and the brutality of the past, and Star Trek represents the magic of a future fantasy. By juxtaposing emotionally-charged fictional and factual and imagery, Taylor collapses time along psychic, genetic, and poetic lines. 


1995, South Orange, New Jersey
Lives and works in New York

Education
2020
MFA, Columbia University, New York

2017
BFA, New York University, New York

Solo Exhibitions
2021
Steve Turner, Los Angeles (upcoming)

2020
Dream Logic, Steve Turner, Los Angeles

Group Exhibitions
2021
Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition, Wallach Gallery/Lenfest Center for the Arts, New York (upcoming)

2020
Say It Loud, Christie’s, New York
Alone Together, Steve Turner, Los Angeles
m.i.o.k. Leroy Neiman Gallery, New York

2019
Whams of Summer, Ki Smith Gallery, New York
Aesthetically Functional Only, Edsel William/The Fireplace Project, New York
Columbia University MFA First-Year Exhibition, Wallach Art Gallery, New York

2017
All Art +, Van der Plas Gallery, New York
Open Stacks: BFA Thesis Exhibition, NYU Commons Gallery
Systems Flow, 80 WSE Gallery, New York

2016
Preservation and Parafiction, NYU Commons Gallery
Back Story, SMI Virginia S Block Gallery, Montclair, New Jersey

Grants and Awards
2019
Helen Frankenthaler Painting Award
Brevoort-Eickemeyer Fellowship
Andrew Fisher Fellowship

2017
Art & Art Professions Department Award, NYU

2016
NYU Curatorial Collaborative Senior Honors Exhibition

Bibliography
2020
Sheets, Hilarie M. “Newly Minted Artists, Facing a Precarious Future, Take Action,” The New York Times, May 19