After a breakthrough role in the Australian coming of age film The Year My Voice Broke in 1987,?Noah Taylor has gone on to become one of Australia's biggest acting exports with lead roles in Shine, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Red Dog and the cult HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones. Despite his undeniable on-screen success, Taylor admits that acting was something he fell into as an adolescent and his passion lies with in fact with his drawing and painting practice.
Never formally trained as a painter, his simple ink on paper works recall an innate sense of innocence and naivety. These almost childlike figurative works are, however, corrupted by haunting imagery - a small figure on a horse being held up at gun point; dark figures in shadow readying their guns; an isolated and desolate landscape. The scenes and imagery appear as if from an unknown land, the beginning a new civilisation or a re-imagining of the past. There is also an underlying humour in Taylor's work. One cannot help but smirk when confronted with the scene of a cat offering a supportive pat on the back. Taylor draws from the subconscious, allowing his brush to intuitively form the bizarre and unsettling narratives. Noah Taylor's works, although seemingly simple, leave a vivid, complex and - most certainly - a lasting impression. Noah Taylor New Works Exhibition 4 - 21 June 2014 To be opened by Claudia Karvan 7 June 2014 Olsen Irwin Works on Paper, Small Paintings and Sculpture 40 Queen Street Woollahra NSW 2025 
