Angus van Zyl Taylor, born in 1970, completed his BA in Fine Arts in 1996 at the University of Pretoria. After tutoring in drawing and sculpture at the University of Pretoria, he ran the Ashanti Art Foundry from 1996 to 1997.

He started his own business and foundry, Dionysus Sculpture Works, in 1998. Angus teaches part time at the University of Pretoria.

He acted as an adviser to the Tshwane University of Technology. His choice of materials is constantly being reappraised and even when he chooses traditional materials like granite or bronze they are used in a unique way, whether by imprinting texts into the surfaces of bronze or eschewing the ability to carve of granite in favour of its block-like potential to construct form that alludes to human form without describing it (as much stone sculpture does).

Contrasted to these materials are forms made of stacked grass, compacted earth, charcoal briquettes and stacked slate.

The inventiveness with which he tackles materials locates Taylor as a post-modern artist referencing traditional crafting techniques but using them in a contemporary manner and style. It is in the multiplicity of approaches and in the uses of diverse and sometimes alternate materials that Taylor has gathered praise and recognition.

Taylor's ambitious nature has him tackling materials and scale that most sculptors would prefer to avoid. This has resulted in gigantic slate figures set into landscapes in various prestigious collections such as the Apple Mac headquarters in Sandton, in the Karoo and in private collections in Canada and Belgium.

AWARDS

1994: Best Sculpture Student (University of Pretoria);

1994: First Prize PPC Young Sculptors Award;

2005: University of Pretoria, Alumni Laureate;

2010: Selected as Festival Artist for Aardklop Art Festival.