Tom Taylor (sculptor)

Tom J. Taylor (1925–1994) was a New Zealand sculptor and educator. He spent his life in Christchurch, and his career as an influential lecturer at the University of Canterbury (UC; Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha).

Taylor trained in architecture then sculpture at the forerunner of UC. He was a lecturer at the UC School of Art who specialised in sculpture and later led that department. Taylor taught modernism but encouraged his students to explore other movements. A number of his students went on to become notable artists.

As a sculptor, his productive early and sparse late periods were figurative and modernist. For a decade in between, Taylor produced abstract fusions of sculpture and architecture. He also designed houses, theatre sets, and was an organiser in the Christchurch arts community.

Taylor's contribution to sculpture is generally regarded to be the artists he trained rather than the works he produced.