* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Jason de Caires Taylor was born in 1974 and divided the earlier part of his life in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. Much of his childhood was spent on the coral reefs of Malaysia where he developed a profound love of the sea and a fascination with the natural world. This would later lead him to spend several years working as a scuba diving instructor in various parts of the globe, developing a strong interest in conservation, underwater naturalism and photography.
In 1998, Taylor received a BA Honours in Sculpture and Ceramics from Camberwell College of Arts, but his scuba diving qualification would prove equally important to his art career. In May 2006 he created the world”s first underwater sculpture park in Grenada, West Indies, furnished with underwater sculptures of his design. These sculptures create a unique, absorbing and expansive visual seascape, highlighting natural ecological processes while offering the viewer privileged temporal encounters.
In 2006, Taylor founded and created the world’s first underwater sculpture park. Situated off the west coast of Grenada in the West Indies, it is now listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic.
Jason has over 20 years diving experience and is also an award winning underwater photographer, famous for his dramatic images, which capture the metamorphosing effects of the ocean on his evolving sculptures
In December of 2015 Jason was invited to do a TED talk on his work.
"Having visited his underwater sculpture park in Grenada, I can tell you how wonderfully it is to explore and experience. I think the venue that he has engaged in draws audiences and issues together in a way that is unique and enduring. I think he's a good example of an artist/activist that is actually achieving something. I want to visit his work again in 20 years."
"Jason is exceptional. Art is not just about making art, for the sake of replicating or copying. He's doing something unique, something special and something that really makes you step back in awe."
"The very idea of an underwater sculpture garden is breathtaking, but his exacting execution creates a surreal private reality. Considering the intrinsic silence on the sea floor, combined with the depth of nature's own color palette, deCaires Taylor creates a seductive milieu that is ever evolving with wind and waves, while his figures echo the permanence of those frozen in volcanic cataclysms."
