'Crying Men (Hayden Christensen)', 2004
SIGNED London Gallery Exhibition Poster
Sam Taylor-Johnson, who first began her career as a photographer in the early 1990s under the name Sam Taylor-Wood, made her film debut in 1994 with her multiscreen video, Killing Time, in which four people mimed an opera score. In 2009, she was selected to direct the biopic Nowhere Boy on John Lennon’s childhood, and has been involved in the film, television, and music industry ever since. Sam Taylor-Johnson is set to direct and produce the forthcoming bio-drama “Rothko,” an adaptation of Lee Seldes’ 1978 book “The Legacy of Mark Rothko,” in which her husband will also have a prominent role and a producer’s credit.
Taylor-Johnson graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1990. Her work in photography and film is distinguished by an ironic and subversive use of these media, which centre on the creation of enigmatic situations replete with a latent but explosive energy. Since her first solo exhibition at White Cube, London in 1995, Taylor-Wood has had numerous solo shows including Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland (1997), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (1997), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (1999), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2000), a retrospective of her work at the Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2002), State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, Russia (2004), MCA, Moscow, Russia (2004), BALTIC, Gateshead, UK (2006), MCA Sydney, Australia (2006), MoCA Cleveland, OH (2008) and the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX (2008). In 1997 she received the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale and was nominated for the Turner Prize. Sam Taylor-Wood lives and works in London, UK.