Taylor White (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Who: Taylor White
Where: ADA Gallery
When: Through June 1
Taylor White once felt uncomfortable painting. Drawing, because it was more direct, was his first artistic interest, “not pushing goop around,” he jokes.
But, as with many fortunate artists, a teacher, Jon McMillan, intervened, showing White that he didn’t need to be intimidated and easing him into paint with solid oil-paint crayons that were as easy to control as pencils. This was his introduction — as a college student in his 30s at the University of Mary Washington — to contemporary artwork.
“Welcome to the Golden Corral,” mixed media, 70 by 62 inches
White was in the Marines for nine years before entering college in 2013. During an introductory “crash course on art,” White decided that he had found his new calling in the studio. “It’s like a drug, the way it smells, interacting with professors,” he says. “It was like this playground.”
White grew up in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte, and recently turned 40. A veteran of the Iraq war, he credits his strong work ethic to the “discipline and structure” he learned in the Marines and the support of his family, with whom he will soon live in the new Artisan Hill building in Richmond’s Fulton Hill neighborhood, just below a studio built specifically to accommodate his large paintings.
“I think about a painting as a construction, like I’m building it,” White says. His canvases are marked with what appear to be childlike scribbles in bright, primary colors, created with oil sticks, charcoal, acrylic paint, spray paint and airbrushes. He also uses fabric, including his wife’s grandparents’ blue rain ponchos, to create color and texture. The effect is striking and bright, with glimmers of Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg.
“Sears Catalog, 1990,” mixed media, 66 by 60 inches
White takes ideas from popular culture, notably hamburgers and hot dogs, to create “unheroic art.” The artwork of his 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter also inspires him. “They’re very excited when they notice, ‘Hey, that’s one of my shapes,’” he says.
His titles — “Fortnight, Hamburger Dream,” “Ice Cream Taught You Nothing” — often evoke humor, even when they have little to do with the paintings’ actual subjects.
Despite his dedication to art for the past four years, White is considered close to an overnight success. Since graduating from Mary Washington in 2017, he has shown pieces in galleries in Brisbane, Berlin, Brussels and Seoul, and has had residencies in Brooklyn and Madrid.
“I’m always working,” he says, “full-blast for the past four years.” But the success he’s seen, White adds, “It’s like a dream.”
“Yonder,” oil on hardboard panel, 12 by 12 inches
Don't Miss: Sarah Gayle Carter, a Richmond native and former custom rug and home furnishings designer, will present her first solo exhibition at Glavé Kocen Gallery featuring a fresh and modern take on the classic genre of landscape painting.
June 7-29. 1620 W. Main St.
