Daphne Taylor

Daphne Taylor uses fabric and thread to create meditative quilt drawings that embody her unique artistic expression and harmony. The stitching ranges from the intrigue of loose gestural drawings to the focus of geometric paintings. This exhibition includes whole cloth and pieced quilts as well as a group of small embroidered drawings. Inspired by her own Quaker heritage, Taylor’s work is elegant, quiet, and introspective. The aesthetic derives from Minimalism and Geometric art, but her works are lush with a rich sense of texture and a strong connection to hand craft. The dichotomy between quiet minimalist control and the comforting accessibility of traditional craft enriches her works with a bold sense of discovery and a strong, if quiet, voice.

Daphne Taylor was born into a Philadelphia Quaker family with historic roots reaching over two hundred years. As an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design, she studied ceramics and developed her love of craft traditions. While working on her MFA in painting at the University of Pennsylvania, she continued her life long discipline of drawing, which to this day, influences stitching patterns in her quilt work. Her close association with the Quaker traditions is a strong influence in her life and work. The curious and profound silence of a Quaker meeting can be felt in the patient, meditative lines of her quilts. Her compositions also frame challenging relationships of colors and other formal tensions, suggesting that there is never an easy or obvious blueprint to her quilts. Like the complex silence felt in a Quaker meeting, the world within Taylor’s quilts is hardly a straightforward place.