Global Studies Seminar: ‘Artistic Influence of the Soviet Era’

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Fatima Taylor, Fine Artist from Ohio University, presenting “Artistic Influence of the Soviet Era.”

Taylor was born in Uzbekistan where she grew up in a middle-class family with a rich cultural variety of Uzbek, Armenian and Russian origins. This diversity plays an important role in her artistic development. Taylor received her MFA from Benkov Republican College of Arts, Tashkent City. As an artist, Taylor is best known for her exceptional details in figurative painting using her vision based on personal history, fantasy, and mystery. Her artistic influence stems from her ongoing study of 15th-century religious paintings by Flemish and Italian Renaissance artists. For the past 9 years, Taylor has been teaching studio art classes at both Shawnee State University and Ohio University. As an art educator, she encourages her students to accept other cultures and to explore ways they can incorporate visual art and history into their lives. Taylor has extensive gallery exposure in the art community that includes France, Moscow, Miami, Los Angeles, and New York. Her belief is that art is a language of expression that should be available and accessible to everyone. Taylor is a Board Member of the Ohio Art League and a member of the Portrait Society of America.

Taylor will explore the social and cultural iconography of the former Soviet Union and how it influenced her artworks. As both a Fine artist and an art educator, Taylor will share some of her paintings that were influenced by Soviet iconography such as postal stamps and poster art used to promote youth organizations. Taylor will discuss the way this exposure impacted her artistic development by sharing significant documentary photographs from the USSR. She will share narratives based on her personal memories of living in the area during the last 30 years of the Soviet era.