John Taylor was born in Darvel, Scotland in 1936. He gained a Diploma of Art in Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art in 1959, and a Higher Diploma of Art at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1973, where he learned to screenprint.
Taylor began working as an editioning screen printer at the Glasgow Print Studio in 1973. He has had four solo exhibitions in the gallery since 1978.
Taylor is represented in many collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery, Maclaurin Art Gallery Ayr, Birmingham Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Hunterian Print Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Dick Institute Kilmarnock, The British Museum, The Fleming Collection and the Contemporary Art Society.