Three contemporary artists—Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Bühler-Rose, and Nick Doyle—are reviving the Renaissance woodworking techniques of intarsia and marquetry in their current exhibitions. Taylor is showing marquetry hybrid paintings at Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco, Bühler-Rose is presenting a solo booth with Stems Gallery at Independent, and Doyle is also participating in the trend. Their work draws inspiration from the Gubbio Studiolo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a 15th-century trompe-l'œil room that exemplifies the decorative inlay tradition.
This resurgence matters because it signals a shift among artists toward labor-intensive, old-world methods as a way to assert the authority and permanence of images in an era of digital saturation and throwaway content. By borrowing from Renaissance and Baroque toolkits, these artists are not following market trends but rather exploring how traditional craftsmanship can reframe contemporary visual culture, blending historical symbolism with modern conceptual concerns.