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Review: Atlanta painter Tommy Taylor explores the divided self in “Threshold
November 25, 2018
ArtsAtl.com
Jerry Cullum

Threshold, at Whitespace through December 1, is Tommy Taylor’s latest expedition into the realm of the divided self. On a literal level, this series of paintings begins with a fragmentary, near-abstract rendering of a figure, then progresses through nearly monochromatic images of a model caught in two different moments of dramatic hand gestures, with the face and hands tightly rendered in an otherwise cloudy field of abstraction.Read More.

For Sale: Art and Real Estate
March 14, 2014
Burnaway.org
Jennifer Jefferson

In recent years, art and real estate have become bedfellows, as the former is often used to sell the latter. In Atlanta, agents, brokers, and developers are partnering with artists and galleries to bring contemporary art into vacant or available property. The goal, of course, is to move the real estate, though artworks often find buyers in the process. The tactic is more complicated than hanging a picture on a wall in an empty building or staging a residence. Does contemporary art actually add value to real estate? Read More.

A Few questions with Tommy Taylor
February 3, 2014
Creative Loafing
Muriel Vega

In collaboration with Whitespace and Ponce City Market, Tommy Taylor is exhibiting his roots in abstract painting with Senga, a pop-up installation inspired by Japanese line work. Using monochromatic lines throughout his pieces, Taylor moves away from his usual vibrant colors and layering and embraces the simplicity of the india ink. A veteran at Art Basel Miami, Taylor has shown his work locally at Whitespace Gallery, Marcia Wood Gallery and Swan Coach House, and elsewhere in New York City, Alabama, and Italy. Here, Taylor talks to CL about coming back to ink, working at Ponce City Market, and what’s next. Read More.

Tommy Taylor discusses Some Sort of Solitude
March 27, 2012
Creative Loafing
Wyatt Williams

On Wednesday, Tommy Taylor will be discussing his latest body of paintings, Some Sort of Solitude, at Whitespace Gallery. There are plenty of reasons to drop in for that, not least of which being that Taylor’s new body of work is a fine example of a painter pushing his limits. Read More.

Interview: Tommy Taylor’s dreamlike, “illogical” new direction, at Whitespace gallery
March 26, 2012
ArtsAtl.com
by Christina Cotter

The paintings in “Some Sort of Solitude,” Tommy Taylor’s exhibition at Whitespace gallery through March 31, bring together the innocence of childhood and real-world concerns for a refreshing clash of imagery. Cartoon characters, boyhood sexual fantasies and family history all vie for space in dreamlike narratives that reveal Taylor’s fascination with the conflicting motivations, meanings and rationalizations that characterize modern life. Read More.

Dialogue: Two reviews of Tommy Taylor’s Tangent
February 19, 2011
Burnaway.org
By Susannah Darrow and Laura Hennighausen

Laura Hennighausen

I honestly hadn’t used the word “anthropomorphic” since the days of art history term papers, but it comes in handy when describing Tommy Taylor’s exhibit of abstracts currently on display at Whitespace. Entitled Tangent, the show is a homecoming for Taylor after several years in Savannah and New York. I visited the exhibition with a friend, and we used the opportunity to gab loudly and excitedly about his works without worry of distracting other viewers. Read More.

Some Kind of Solitude: Tommy Taylor at Whitespace Gallery
A Mash-up of Myth, Memory and Old Masters
February 26, 2012
Luxe Crush
By Nancy Staab

A NYC-based artist returns to his native South and then, temporarily, trades in his abstract style for something more figurative, layered and allusive. LuxeCrush visits the studio of Tommy Taylor to get a handle on this versatile artist and his new visual trajectory. Read More.

Taylor-Made: Abstract painter Tommy Taylor’s return to his native South sparks a creative tsunami
January/February 2010
Atlantan Magazine
By Kristi York Wooten

The tired stereotype about artists being reclusive, social misfits doesn’t fit Tommy Taylor.  For starters, this just-turned-40 bachelor (he’s single, ladies) is not only gregarious, but has a gift for gab. And with a future exhibition at London’s prestigious Frieze Art Fair and artist’s residency this fall in Seoul, South Korea, this boyishly handsome South-of-Grant Park local can scarcely afford to be introverted. But before Taylor goes global, he has a major Atlanta exhibit opening January 15 at Whitespace gallery. The show will feature an all-new series of his colorful acrylics and oils. His lush, expressive paintings have been likened to Willem de Kooning’s and have earned Taylor a reputation as a “painter’s painter.”

“Growing up, I hung out with the kids who sat in the back of the class, always drawing,” Taylor says of his upbringing in the conservative South Carolina town of Greenville. “They all went on the become architects and musicians, and I became an artist.” Taylor, who holds a BFA from the University of Georgia, ended up in Atlanta after living in both Savannah and New York City post-college. Visiting Greenville last year to help a friend with an extended art assignment had a rather cathartic effect on his own art— giving him the mental space to produce an entire show’s worth of work. Taylor, who revels in “the immediacy and fearlessness of the application of paint,” counts angst-ridden, British figurative painter Francis Bacon as a major influence, but he also gives props to abstract expressionist Antoni Tàpies and the conceptual/surrealist art of Inka Essenhigh. And although Taylor’s purposeful lines and pastel color blocks are a far cry from American painter Andrew Wyeth’s stark realism, he owes much of his interest in art to the classes he took as a young boy at the Greenville County Museum of Art, which once housed the world’s largest collection of Wyeth’s paintings. “I was always amazed at how [Wyeth] could render a rusty bucket with just a few brushstrokes,” Taylor laughs.

As for his own work, Taylor has had some pretty famous clients: Try fashion photographers Steven Klein and Ruven Afanador, for whom he beautified an on-set shoot involving actress Uma Thurman. He has also added flourishes to some of Atlanta’s hippest nightclubs of yore (Mumbo Jumbo, Fusebox, Vision), as well as the glam-graffiti décor of the current Midtown bôite Aurum. Taylor was even commissioned by Anthropologie to embellish the walls of its boho-chic stores nationwide.

Everything from a Metallica song to an accidental encounter with ‘60s pop artist Peter Saul is fodder for Taylor’s abstract but reality-grounded canvases— an approach that meshes just fine for a painter who wishes the art world wasn’t “so esoteric.”