Alison Elizabeth Taylor (born 1973, Selma, Alabama) is an American artist based out of New York City. She is known for her Renaissance-style marquetry and woodwork depicting contemporary subject matter. Her work has been featured at a number of notable galleries and covered in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Village Voice.

Works and Career

The Tattooist, 2008, Wood veneer, pyrography, shellac, 54 × 41 inches
Form follows function in that Taylor employs marquetry in the service of content. She subverts inlay's decorative status by constructing narratives that are neither decorative, nor memorial, nor facile, but rather freezing the abject, mundane and ordinary in time. Marquetry was first popularized under Louis XIV in the 17th century in the unprecedented luxury of Versailles. By portraying these subjects in a technique associated with opulence and privilege, the artist pays respect to the subject and challenges the expectations and connotations associated with the material.

Alison Elizabeth Taylor is a graduate of Columbia University, School of the Arts and has had three solo exhibitions at the James Cohan Gallery in New York.Kino, Carol (27 May 2008). An Artist Revives Renaissance-Style Marquetry,.The New York Times.Retrieved 2008-07-18.James Cohan Gallery - Alison Elizabeth Taylor.