About Zoya
About Zoya Taylor
“I am a diasporic painter and pull from all the places I have lived. Labels are meant to draw clear lines, but most of us live in the areas between them. I find comfort in that ambiguity and focus on the shifting space where difference and sameness meet.
A recurring theme in my work is being in a state of flux and understanding that this state of “impermanence” is permanent. The language of my art is, in some way, a reflection of the ideas of being uprooted, in transit and in search. I have gained rather than lost from these movements. My connections to and memories of each place are made up of fragments, but that’s exactly what my story is. Hopefully, I am where I am supposed to be. “
Zoya´s work has been exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, as well as at major art fairs, and she maintains gallery representation in the USA, Canada, Jamaica and Norway.
She is a self-taught painter, born in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, to Jamaican and Canadian parents. She spent her early childhood in Germany, grew up in Kingston, Jamaica and has lived in Norway for more than thirty years.
Zoya has a Master’s in International Social Work from the University of British Columbia, Canada. After years of teaching at universities, developing community programs and outreach facilities in Jamaica, Canada, Latvia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Norway, Zoya began painting full-time in 2000.
In 2017, Zoya received the Award of Excellence in the category of Fine Art from Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art and Design.
In 2015, she was awarded 1st Prize in the 2015 International Juried competition at The Center for Contemporary Arts, New Jersey, USA.
In 2009, Zoya was awarded the President´s Award at the Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy
Zoya’s paintings are represented in internationally renowned Art Collections such as the Bill and Christy Gautreux Collection in Kansas City, Missouri and Art in Embassies
Her paintings have been featured in textbooks and journals in Britain and Norway and have illustrated theater productions in both Canada and Norway.
Her painting ”Sweet Infidel” was selected for the First Prize Award at the 2015 International Juried Exhibition of the Center for Contemporary Art in New Jersey. Her painting “The Mask” was selected as the cover for the Arabic edition of Nella Larsen’s novel “Passing”.
A book of her paintings, “It Stayed with Me”, with an introduction by Siri Hustvedt, was published by BlackCap in 2022.
