Some Sort of Solitude, Tommy Taylor’s second solo show at whitespace gallery, demonstrates a new direction in Taylor’s work. Over the past twelve years, his paintings have been mainly abstract pieces with amoebic-like forms created from intuitive, as opposed to planned, brushstrokes. His work continues evolving, but even though it introduces figures and pop references, it still contains those amorphous, abstract elements of his previous work.

His reflection on the conflicting desires, drives, meanings, and logic that confounded him as a child showed Taylor that, while he can grasp the many layers on which that conflict plays out better, it is still just as characteristic of his adult experience as it was of his childhood. He gives expression to this by placing visual elements that are hard to understand in intentionally chaotic and confusing ways that exclude the traditional visual cues of painting, like his previous abstract work. As a result, he is thwarting any possibility of arriving at a coherent, consistent visual reading of the painting. Produced and displayed in this way, the elements compete with each other, just like the drives, histories, expectations, and accepted social norms of our daily lives.