Member-only story
Henry Taylor’s B Side: Where Mind Shapes Itself to Canvas
Henry Taylor: B Side
at MOCA Grand, Los Angeles (through 30 April 2023)
Reviewed by Eve Wood
Ages ago when there were LP records and 45s, the B side of a popular single made allowances for experimentation and could be counted on as an alternative vision to the more mainstream and compulsory hit single. B sides were not the reason you bought the album, but they were perhaps a more authentic representation of the artist’s vision, and every so often a great B side would feel akin to unearthing gold. Henry Taylor’s thirty-year retrospective at MOCA Grand pays homage to the unexpected, the visceral, and the odd man out, and like any successful B side, you want to keep listening.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee. Image and work ©Henry Taylor, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Brian Forrest.
Featuring more than 150 works that include paintings, drawings, sculptures, and painted objects like cereal boxes and beer crates, this survey represents a vision forged in fire yet tempered with tremendous sensitivity, compassion, and humor. Taylor’s work can trigger tears yet have you chuckling as well in the same moment. In Taylor’s world, images of friends, loved ones, and complete strangers comingle and cohabitate, and sometimes they connect in violent and unexpected ways.
Like the work of Noah Davis or Kerry James Marshall, Taylor explores his own heritage and the…
