Artist's Statement
Having lived in numerous countries and experienced many kinds of occupations, painting has turned out to be my true work and, in a sense, my home. The process of creating art challenges me intellectually and emotionally, and it is during production that I am most at peace.
My mixed media technique (roughly speaking) involves painting line-work drawings of social and political imagery amidst abstract compositions. I often like to think of the combination of mixed media and varied visual disciplines as a projection my mixed cultural heritage. A lot of my subject matter comes through musings on history and modern life as well as endless research. I’m drawn to bitter humour and dry punchlines, and that seems to come out in my work too.
I always start out thinking I have complete control over the drawings, but in fact they end up taking a certain amount of the creation into their own hands. I have come to embrace that, as the “accidental” can be the most powerful element in any aesthetic.
I dilute acrylic paint with water to the point where the binding medium of the paint breaks down. Often working with the canvas laid flat, I pour, smear and scrape puddles of paint across the canvas, using palette-knives, brushes, rags, paper towels and my hands. The pigment settles like silt on the textured gessoed surface, and while I can direct the painting a certain way before it dries, at times it is the paint and water themselves which choose ultimately what they will do.
My abstracts are often made up of between eight and fifteen different layers and washes of acrylic paint with varying opacities resulting in complex colourations. Anywhere between and on top of these layers, I paint line-work style drawings and motifs which I have researched and developed.
What intrigues me most is the relationship between the line-work drawing, the abstract ground and the spectator, and how the insinuation of three dimensionality through the perspective drawings play with the viewer and the two dimensional abstract plane. They exist at the same time as separate entities but in the same body – or that’s my understanding of it.
- Paul Ulan-Taylor, Bangkok, 2017
Biography
Paul Ulan-Taylor was born in 1982 in Bangkok, Thailand. From mixed British and Filipino heritage, he studied in Thailand, Singapore and India before moving to the United Kingdom in 2002, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design and Technology from Loughborough University in 2005.
Ulan-Taylor worked as an in-house multimedia designer in the Cotswolds, southwest England, before freelancing as a graphic designer in Amsterdam for two years. In 2010, Ulan-Taylor moved to Bangkok where he worked in the art industry with galleries locally and in New York, and eventually began to consult and represent artists independently.
In 2014 , as part of Bangkok gallery Rebel Art Space’s artist residency programme in Bangkok and Nakhorn Sawan, north Thailand, Ulan-Taylor began to develop his own practice in mixed media painting. With nods towards his background in product design, Ulan-Taylor’s paintings sometimes feature draftsman-like drawings containing social and political imagery painted amidst abstract backdrops.
Paul Ulan-Taylor holds British and Thai citizenship and lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. His work features in private collections in the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong and the USA.
Education & Experience
2005 (Bachelor of Arts) Industrial Design and Technology, Loughborough University, UK
Two Man Exhibitions
2015 The Optimists, presented by and featuring Michael Shaowanasai, RMA Institute, Bangkok
Group Exhibitions
2016 Tribute / บูชา, Sombat Permpoon Gallery, Bangkok
2015-2016 Michael Shaowanasai's Revisits, The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
2015 Pakbara Paradiso, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
Arise, Rebel Art Space, Bangkok
Artist Residencies
2014 - 2015 Rebel Art Space Artist Residency Programme, Bangkok and Nakhorn Sawan, Thailand
Collections
Private collections in the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong and the USA.
Having lived in numerous countries and experienced many kinds of occupations, painting has turned out to be my true work and, in a sense, my home. The process of creating art challenges me intellectually and emotionally, and it is during production that I am most at peace.
My mixed media technique (roughly speaking) involves painting line-work drawings of social and political imagery amidst abstract compositions. I often like to think of the combination of mixed media and varied visual disciplines as a projection my mixed cultural heritage. A lot of my subject matter comes through musings on history and modern life as well as endless research. I’m drawn to bitter humour and dry punchlines, and that seems to come out in my work too.
I always start out thinking I have complete control over the drawings, but in fact they end up taking a certain amount of the creation into their own hands. I have come to embrace that, as the “accidental” can be the most powerful element in any aesthetic.
I dilute acrylic paint with water to the point where the binding medium of the paint breaks down. Often working with the canvas laid flat, I pour, smear and scrape puddles of paint across the canvas, using palette-knives, brushes, rags, paper towels and my hands. The pigment settles like silt on the textured gessoed surface, and while I can direct the painting a certain way before it dries, at times it is the paint and water themselves which choose ultimately what they will do.
My abstracts are often made up of between eight and fifteen different layers and washes of acrylic paint with varying opacities resulting in complex colourations. Anywhere between and on top of these layers, I paint line-work style drawings and motifs which I have researched and developed.
What intrigues me most is the relationship between the line-work drawing, the abstract ground and the spectator, and how the insinuation of three dimensionality through the perspective drawings play with the viewer and the two dimensional abstract plane. They exist at the same time as separate entities but in the same body – or that’s my understanding of it.
- Paul Ulan-Taylor, Bangkok, 2017
Biography
Paul Ulan-Taylor was born in 1982 in Bangkok, Thailand. From mixed British and Filipino heritage, he studied in Thailand, Singapore and India before moving to the United Kingdom in 2002, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design and Technology from Loughborough University in 2005.
Ulan-Taylor worked as an in-house multimedia designer in the Cotswolds, southwest England, before freelancing as a graphic designer in Amsterdam for two years. In 2010, Ulan-Taylor moved to Bangkok where he worked in the art industry with galleries locally and in New York, and eventually began to consult and represent artists independently.
In 2014 , as part of Bangkok gallery Rebel Art Space’s artist residency programme in Bangkok and Nakhorn Sawan, north Thailand, Ulan-Taylor began to develop his own practice in mixed media painting. With nods towards his background in product design, Ulan-Taylor’s paintings sometimes feature draftsman-like drawings containing social and political imagery painted amidst abstract backdrops.
Paul Ulan-Taylor holds British and Thai citizenship and lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. His work features in private collections in the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong and the USA.
Education & Experience
2005 (Bachelor of Arts) Industrial Design and Technology, Loughborough University, UK
Two Man Exhibitions
2015 The Optimists, presented by and featuring Michael Shaowanasai, RMA Institute, Bangkok
Group Exhibitions
2016 Tribute / บูชา, Sombat Permpoon Gallery, Bangkok
2015-2016 Michael Shaowanasai's Revisits, The Art Center, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
2015 Pakbara Paradiso, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
Arise, Rebel Art Space, Bangkok
Artist Residencies
2014 - 2015 Rebel Art Space Artist Residency Programme, Bangkok and Nakhorn Sawan, Thailand
Collections
Private collections in the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong and the USA.