Henry Taylor

Spanning from the humorous to the contemplative, this intimate collection of new works both distills and expands Taylor’s practice. It also serves as a record of the artist’s time spent in Berkeley, just a short distance from Laney College in Oakland, where he took his first etching class in the late 1970s.

Known for saturated color passages, gestural mark making and a rapid style of execution, Taylor’s work emerges from his relentless cataloging of imagery, experiences and imaginings. The artist’s printmaking is likewise a rich amalgam of life and invention, guided by a deep empathy for his subjects and extensive repertoire of influences.

The works on view here include still lifes, portraits, fictive landscapes and scenes of family and friends. Many of these printed works draw inspiration from earlier paintings, incorporating recurring imagery and themes while revisiting former compositions. With the print ‘It wasn’t just Sunday, it was Easter Sunday and I had to wear a dress!’ (2024), Taylor returns to a 2011 painting he based off a photograph of his late mother and his daughter when she was a young child. Experimenting with color variations, he adopts the palette of French painter and printmaker Édouard Vuillard.

In other iterations of the print, Taylor isolates and modifies specific elements, shaping the overall emotional quality and texture of each piece. Several intimate black-and-white etchings, including one of his late friend and fellow artist Pope.L, are meditations on mortality and loss. Printmaking introduces a new collaborative dimension to Taylor’s practice, which he likens to the relationship between a musician and producer. It also brings a different tempo and physicality to his aesthetic pursuits. In these prints, Taylor’s skill as a colorist is particularly evident; for instance, the same piercing self-portrait—present across three different works—shifts in meaning and nuance via the visceral impact of each version’s unique combination of color and line.

In ‘Fade to Black, I Did Not Pay the Electric Bill’ (2024), Taylor ultimately blocks out most of the color, a technique he often employs in his paintings. By completely obscuring an entire scene or text, Taylor ensures that only he knows what remains hidden underneath. Similarly, in a private tribute on the back of a still life inspired by Beckmann and Manet, the artist lists names—of loved ones, of the printers at Paulson Fontaine and of familiars who have recently died—further highlighting the medium’s expressive potential.