Henry Taylor
Henry Taylor’s imprint on the American cultural landscape comes from his disruption of tradition. While people figure prominently in Taylor’s work, he rejects the label of portraitist. Taylor’s chosen subjects are only one piece of the larger cultural narrative that they represent: his paintings reveal the forces at play, both individualistic and societal, that come to bear on his subject. The end result is not a mere idealized image, but a complete narrative of a person and his history. Taylor explains this pursuit of representational truth: ‘It’s about respect, because I respect these people. It’s a two-dimensional surface, but they are really three-dimensional beings.’
Work
Exhibitions
2023
- Whitney Museum of American Art, 'Henry Taylor: B Side', New York NY (Travelling Exhibition)
- Fabric Workshop and Museum, ‘Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange’, Philadelphia PA
2022
- Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Henry Taylor: B Side’, Los Angeles CA (Travelling Exhibition)
2021
- Hauser & Wirth, ‘Disappeared, but a tiger showed up, later’, Southampton NY
- Hauser & Wirth, ‘Henry Taylor’, Somerset, UK
2019
- Blum & Poe, ‘NIECE COUSIN KIN LOOK HOW LONG IT'S BEEN’, New York NY
2018
- Blum & Poe, ‘Here and There’, Tokyo, Japan
2017
- Galerie Eva Presenhuber, ‘A Portrait Show’, Zurich, Switzerland
- The High Line, ‘the floaters’, New York NY
2016
- Blum & Poe, ‘Henry Taylor With a New Film by Kahlil Joseph’, Los Angeles CA
- Henry Taylor’s, ‘Henry Taylor. Camarillo State Hospital’, Los Angeles CA
- The Mistake Room, ‘This Side, That Side’, Guadalajara, Mexico
2015
- Carlos/Ishikawa, ‘Henry Taylor’, London, UK
- Artpace, ‘They shot my dad, they shot my dad!’, San Antonio TX
- Blum & Poe, ‘Henry Taylor’, New York NY
- UNTITLED, ‘Henry Taylor’, New York NY
Videos
Henry Taylor makes paintings that confront the increasingly visible racial tensions between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In this studio visit, he discusses his process and the source imagery for his paintings.
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