Biography of Nicholas Taylor
Nicholas Taylor was thrust into the limelight when he released his highly successful portfolio of photographs documenting his friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat. Moving to New York in 1977, Taylor found himself in the epicenter of a thriving and exciting art scene headed by graffiti artist, painter, poet, musician, and producer Basquiat.
Nicholas Taylor first got to know Basquiat in the late 70s having joined a "No Wave" band that also featured Michael Holman, Vince Gallo, and Wayne Clifford. He launched a successful career as a musician and made a name for himself after experimenting with tape loop DJing and opening for Africa Bambaataa in the East Village. Taylor's track Suicide Mode was in fact on the Basquiat film soundtrack directed by Julian Schnabel.
Taylor is also well-known for the intimate and revealing photographs he took of his close friend and fellow band member Basquiat who died prematurely aged only 27 in 1988. The latter was an iconic figure in the 1980s and his Primitivist works reveal a deeply conflicted character, one that was haunted between inner and outer experience. Taylor's monochrome prints reveal Basquiat's fragile and joyful sides as well as his more purposeful and serious side. Nicholas Taylor’s solo exhibition An Intimate Portrait at the Susquehanna Museum Maryland travelled on to the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, New York in 2004.