ART CITIES:N.York-Al Taylor

The exhibition presents a comprehensive examination of Taylor’s Pet Stains and Puddles, which encompass a large grouping of interconnected series that were created between 1989 and 1992 and works from Taylor’s later series Full Gospel Neckless that the artist made in Denmark for his 1997 solo exhibition at Gallerie Tommy Lund.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive

In the fluid and lyrical drawings and constructions on view from Taylor’s Pet Stains and Puddles series, the artist used his observations of everyday street puddles and pavement stains as a jumping-off point to explore states of liquidity altered by the passage of time. To construct the three-dimensional works he collectively titled Pet Stain Removal Devices, Taylor utilized Plexiglas as a painting surface (conjoined in tiers on wood blocks or suspended from wires), which allowed him to play with the space occupied by the constructions and focus on the illusionary fracturing or spreading of opaque paint seen through the transparent planes. By providing multiple vantage points, the trails of paint applied to each plane sometimes appear to be continuous, and at other times, broken. The objects and drawings on view in Pet Stains, Puddles, and Full Gospel Neckless demonstrate Taylor’s relentless curiosity about the process of seeing-that is, how we see and what we see, which he systematically explored by applying a multitude of constantly shifting points of view. The artist’s investigations combined metaphor with seemingly incongruous materials and concepts in order to find new relationships between subject matter, space, and meaning. Simply put by Taylor:“Curiosity is the spark, intentions are the fuel, art is the vehicle and the artist is the driver, you are the road, I hope that these tires hold out”.

Info: David Zwirner Gallery, 537 West 20th Street, New York, Duration: 9/1-14/2/15, www.davidzwirner.com