Charlie is a Jersey borne artist who hit the local scene recently with gusto. He’s got a solo exhibition coming up on 16th April at Private & Public and he’s rather excited about it; quite right too… After showing some of his work alongside the likes of Banksy, Warhol and Emin, Charlie
Haydn-Taylor is aiming high – with his dreams of showcasing in New York one day at The Museum of Modern Art. “If I was feeling more patriotic, I might go with the Tate Modern or perhaps one of the larger private galleries, Hauser and Wirth in London. I also wouldn’t say no if Larry Gagosian came knocking.”
Since he was a wee snip of a boy, Charlie has been fascinated by art. Dragging his family around museums and exhibitions since before his teens, he was more Guggenheim than
The Gruffalo as a kid. He’s been nurturing and building his style and craft since school and thanks to local art dealer, Chris Clifford, Charlie is making a name for himself, featuring on Saatchi’s website with a glowing array of his work.
“It was when I went off to secondary school in England that my practice really began to form. I had an extremely inspirational art teacher who, having graduated from the Royal College of Art, continued his own practice in the realm of photo realistic painting. It was him who helped drive me towards the work I create today. I went on to study for an art foundation at Kingston University, which although enjoyable, was too short to have a distinct impact in the way I worked and formed ideas. It wasn’t until my BA at Goldsmiths that the prevalence in the ‘concept’ began to form within my work.
As Goldsmiths is known for being quite an experimental University creatively, I found that it was never an issue of how the work looked but more to do with the idea driving it. This has since been a very prevalent modus operandi when creating my work.”
Charlie’s work has been likened to Richard Hamilton, a British pop artist of the 1960’s. The use of collage to collate a mixture of content that forms one idea… Damien Hirst has impacted Charlie’s work; inspiring him on many levels. A fellow alumni of Goldsmiths, Hirst is the master of visualising new ways of perceiving life and death… Charlie’s message with his art is also to evoke thoughts of current societal issues. A recent comment from entergallery.com said, “Haydn Taylor has created his own world where the figures exist in such a way as to comment on the negative progression that has formed in parts of society.”
We asked Charlie to describe Jersey’s art scene in 100 words and this is what he said…
“To be honest, we’re starting to see a shift in Jerseys art scene. Having traditionally been more conservative with a love for the more classically trained painters, I feel as though a progression is occurring in the islands appreciation for more
contemporary work. I think this is partly due to Private and Public bringing some of the largest names of the art world to our doorstep. Having only met Chris a year ago and seen the gallery, it is monumental what he has achieved in bringing the Jersey art scene to life. When was the last time we got to see Banksy’s, Warhol’s and Tracey Emin’s all in the same place?”
