Imogen Taylor

From Behind brings together new and recent paintings by Imogen Taylor, which playfully engage with the weight of art's histories. Turning her brush to the tenuous space between abstraction and representation, Taylor considers what it means to paint in the wake of the histories and the places that lie behind – and before – us.

Over the previous decade, much of Taylor’s work has been concerned with an interrogation of the legacies of modernist painting that have shaped settler-colonial New Zealand. From her position as a Pākehā painter, Taylor looks back at this art history, while challenging the artifice and restrictions of its colonial framing devices. Laced with humour, From Behind continues this exploration, considering ideas of positionality, power dynamics and queer desire.

Created over the past four years, the paintings brought together here were made in both Aotearoa and in London, where Taylor has been living since 2024. These paintings push back against the dominant social, cultural, and sexual politics that have been encoded within formal abstraction. In this space Taylor plays with the slippage between representation and abstraction: she is not afraid to fragment a view, to contradict our understanding of spatial dynamics, to ask us to reconsider what we are looking at – and where we are looking from.

From Behind refuses to offer a solid place to stand, asking us to navigate our own frames of reference. Where might we exist in relation to these paintings – and to the forces that have shaped them?

Dr Kirsty Baker

Kaipupuri Whakaaturanga | Curator | City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi

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Ko te whakaaturaka nei From Behind, ka herea ētahi peita hou, me ētahi peita o nā noa nei hoki nā Imogen Taylor, e hīaka ana te aro ki te taumaha o te tāhuhu kōrero o te mahi toi. Ka huri tana paraihe ki te wāhi pūhihi i waeka i te toi tūrehurehu me te toi tūturu, ka āta whakaarohia e Taylor te tikaka o te mahi peita i te au o kā tāhuhu kōrero me kā wāhi ko waiho atu ai ki muri i a mātau, ā, ka tatari ki a mātau hoki i te wā mua.

I te kahuru tau ko hori, ko tētahi wāhi nui o ā Taylor mahi ko te uika o te pātai ki kā mahuetaka o te toi akahou, te momo toi nāhana te tāmitaka o Aotearoa i ahuahu. Mai i tōhona tūraka hai kaipeita Pākehā, ka titiro whakamuri a Taylor ki te tāhuhu kōrero o te mahi toi, ā, i a ia tou e wero ana i te nuka me kā hereka o āhana rautaki e whakatairaka ana i taua tāmitaka. Ko rarakahia he reo whakakata ka whakakōkirihia e From Behind taua whakatōmenetaka, ka whakaarohia hoki te mana o te tūraka hapori o kā tākata, kā taineke o te pupuri mana, me kā wawata o te huka irakē.

I peitahia i kā tau e whā ko hipa, ko kā peita ko whakapaehia i peitahia ki Aotearoa, ā, ki Rānana hoki, i reira noho ai a Taylor nō te tau 2024. Ka werohia e ēnei peita kā tōrakapū matua ā-hapori, ā-ahurea, ā-taihema ko huna ki te tui o te kaka o te toi tūrehurehu ōkawa. I konei ka tākaro a Taylor ki te papa māeneene i waeka i te toi tūturu me te toi tūrehurehu: kāore he matakū ōhona ki te whakapākarukaru i tō tātau tirohaka, ki te whakahorihori i ō mātou mōhio ki kā tainuku o te wāhi, ki te ākina tātau ki te titiro anō ki te mea e tirohia ana e tātau – ā, ki te wāhi i tirohia atu ai hoki e tātau. 

Kāore i te whakaae a From Behind ki te tuku i tētahi tūāpapa e tū kaha ai te takata, ka whakapātarihia tātau kē ki te āta tirotiro ā tātau ake pou tarāwaho. Ka hākai pēhea nei tā tātau tū ki te titiro ki ēnei peita – ā, ki kā uruhi hoki nāhana aua peita i ahuahu?

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This exhibition is curated by Dr Kirsty Baker, at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi.

The exhibition will be presented at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2026 before its display at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi in early 2027.

Imogen Taylor: From Behind has been developed by City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. Part of Wheako Pōneke Experience Wellington. Principal Funder Wellington City Council. Strategic Partner City Gallery Wellington Foundation.