![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/TAYLOR-McKIMENS-NYC-March-4-2016.jpg\" "\\"TAYLOR-McKIMENS,--NYC-March-4,-2016\\"")
<\/a>\nTAYLOR McKIMENS at the ‘TOMMO GOKITA – BILL BRADY NYC POP-UP’ opening, MARCH 4, 2016.
\nTaylor will be leaving in a month or so, for a 3 month residency in Greece, and then he is re-locating to L.A.
\nI’ve know Taylor since about 2002, when I first started working as an event photographer at artnet. that’s about 14 years now. that’s a long time, by any count. I knew him when he was just pretty much arrived, and working as a studio assistant for DONALD BAECHLER. KENNY SCHACHTER was the first person to seriously promote his work, and include it in his early NYC group shows.
\nI watched him grow, through some twists and turns for sure, but ultimately: bloom.
\nand . . finally in the past few years, achieve considerable success.
\nnot a small thing, in this hard-nut-to-crack . . town. <\/p>\n
check out his official website: mckimens.com<\/a><\/p>\n I most certainly was at that<\/strong> opening, it was back in Jan of 2005. it was an incredible incredible night, very high energy. Taylor turned the whole scene onto a lot of new work. the opening photos are no longer online – a casualty of switching to a new online format to accommodate mobile devices, & the new internet routing formats.<\/a>
\nTaylor told me a nice story about this ‘soft’ sculpture by MISAKi KAWAI, behind him in the Johnson Trading Gallery space, in Tribeca.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nhe told me it was actually part of a much bigger piece . . that Kenny had exhibited and almost sold to IGGY POP !!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nbut when the deal fell through, storage became a problem, tell us about it !!
\nand Misaki had no option but to dismantle the piece into smaller parts. the logistics headaches & turnabout of a contemporary NYC artist. but it still looks great – just like this. <\/p>\n<\/a>
\nrecently TAYLOR has been doing a lot of sketches from life, and posts them to his Instagram page .. @taylormckimens.
\nhe also gathers them up, well really photo images of them . . into – DIY books.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nTAYLOR used to be really into carton-inspired ‘vignettes’, like western bar scenes & lonely psycho all night diners !! but now he seems to be really into . . heads. portraits. from life, as opposed to the fevered imagination.
\nthough obviously, the imagination is not out for long, esp when it come to color.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nthis book, of sketches from Sept 2014, often feels like a ‘flip book’.
\nthis page is particular harkens back to his earlier work. you know, the down & out scrubby western character hanging out at the desert gas station, an old pick-up truck, and some scratchy, weedy cactus – nearby.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nthe ‘hot’ colors also speak to Taylor’s early desert roots.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nthose are Tomoo’s buttons on the side. they have been friends for quite a while now, too. Taylor included Tomoo – in an early show he curated in Chelsea, called ‘Stranger Town’ – it’s still spoken about.<\/p>\n
\nlol. maybe I should make a small DIY book – of those pix ????<\/p>\n