~TAYLOR McKIMENS . . OPENS at BRIGHT LYONS, CHELSEA POP-UP

TAYLOR McKIMENS . . COMMISSIONS BY BRIGHT LYONS, 2008-2015
opens TUES FEB 3, 2015 / 6-9PM
the show runs FEB 3 – 17, 2015 – so don’t blink !!
BRIGHT LYONS – 455 WEST 19th ST – CHELSEA, NYC
note: the Chelsea street address for this event !!

this is TAYLOR’S first solo show in NYC since his solo project, ‘SOFT SERVE’ at DEITCH PROJECTS in 2008.

here’s the low down:
TAYLOR McKIMENS . . is a great painter, right up there, and I have been a huge fan since day 1, it’s almost 15 years since we first crossed paths, and it’s been great fun to watch his work grow, and unfold. this is a painter’s painter . . very smart. a very tough mix that manages to be both fantastic yet hard-edged ‘story-book’, and yet absolute gritty & realist . . it’s most definite: painting, mixed further, as in hot & heavy . . with brilliant gestural color and flourishes, embellished by a desert dry wit, and dripping . . comic book ethos.

dare I say the ‘poster’ image below – is a kind of ‘selfie’, if not exactly a self-portrait, certainly a portrait within Taylor’s private world. so a ‘selfie’ – by extension ?
what makes it read ‘selfie’ to me – is the way the face confronts the viewer, challenging, maybe even hiding – but dead pan: “what am I thinking”, “what do you think – gazing upon me” ?
what worlds open up – between us.
what worlds, what ‘bookmarks’ – of time and place are thus archived, noted, and illuminated.
what of the boundary . . between you and .. me ?
can you see through me ?
or is that, can you see through . . to me ?
or do I only mark a point – in time and space.

and for those of you who flew by this post, without hitting that BRIGHT LYONS link, I just wanted to make sure . . you saw this !!
even a funny desert CACTUS, is a selfie x selfie x cactus, in TAYLOR’S hands !!
hello world, I’m a . . cactus.
now what ?