Yesterday @moca invited us to preview @chinatowntaylor ’s upcoming exhibition that will be open for free from 11.6.22 - 4.30.23 at their Grand Avenue location. The exhibition is the most extensive survey of Taylor’s work to date featuring over 150 works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation dating from the late-1980’s to present. Upon entering you feel the immediate weight of his works, the exhibition is organized thematically rather than chronologically, a choice made by MOCA curator Bennett Simpson. Because of this you are able to walk through feeling the range of Taylor’s work and a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The subjects are populated by friends and relatives, strangers on the street, star athletes, politicians, and entertainers, Taylor’s canvases describe an imagination encompassing multiple worlds—from the gritty sidewalks of Downtown LosAngeles to more rarified domains of musicians and art legends. “I paint everyone,” the artist has said, “or I try to.” Taylor’s emphasis on figuration foregrounds recognition—both literally and politically—but the work is also rich with noise, interruption, and improvisation, dodging realism by way of uncanny formal decisions. Though Taylor is widely appreciated for his portraiture, his work encompasses many genres and moves musically through stylistic influences (among them, Picasso, Matisse, Max Beckman, Bob Thompson, Phillip Guston, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and David Hammons). Within this diversity, Taylor’s attention to Black Americans, and to various conditions of Black America, come into focus in ways that are alternately deep-feeling, witty, joyful, and concerned. Informed by experience, but shaped by a rare and restless imagination, his work conveys its fundamental care in close looking and sharpened social criticism alike.