Taylor Baptiste

Taylor Baptiste is an interdisciplinary artist from the Osoyoos Indian Band of the Okanagan Nation, who draws upon her upbringing in Nk’mip – a field of sagebrush and wild roses nestled between the mountains and Osoyoos Lake on the Osoyoos Indian Band reservation. Raised by Richard and Colleen Baptiste, her art practice is deeply rooted in her family, community and ancestral history. Moreover, she incorporates elements of Syilx storytelling and epistemologies, reflecting a connection to the land and waters of the Okanagan.

Taylor sculpturally blends Okanagan land-based materials and Syilx traditional practices with contemporary mediums and modes of making; working with materials ranging from ochre pigment, buckskin, rocks, beadwork, sinew and ready-made materials. While sculpture serves as her primary mode of expression, Taylor’s artistic repertoire also encompasses digital illustration, painting, photography, and most recently, film and projection.

Her long term goals are to create new Syilx public art installations throughout the Okanagan Valley and to create artwork that can go back into Okanagan communities homes and ceremonies. In May of 2024, Taylor received a Bachelor of Fine Arts: Visual Arts Degree from Emily Carr University of Art & Design with a specialization in Sculpture. She now resides with her husband in the traditional territory of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), colonially known as Vancouver.