Contemporary Artists Revive Renaissance Marquetry and Intarsia

Three artists—Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Bühler-Rose, and Nick Doyle—are reviving the Renaissance decorative woodworking techniques of intarsia and marquetry in their current exhibitions. Taylor's hybrid marquetry paintings are on view at Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco through May 30 in "I'll Be Your Mirror." Bühler-Rose presents a solo booth with Stems Gallery at Independent, featuring a four-panel trompe l'œil work inspired by the Gubbio Studiolo at the Met. Doyle's denim-marquetry sculptures are shown at Perrotin in New York through May 30 in "Collective Hallucinations." The Gubbio Studiolo, a 15th-century trompe l'œil room at the Met commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro, serves as a key inspiration. Taylor, self-taught in marquetry, references Manet and foreclosed homes, while Bühler-Rose combines intarsia with contemporary still lifes and references the Pictures Generation. Doyle uses denim to explore Americana and manifest destiny, including an AI oracle named Ava. The artists counter digital saturation with labor-intensive craft, echoing a broader turn toward materiality in contemporary art.