About the Artist

Henry Taylor was born in Ventura, California in 1958, and grew up in Oxnard, north of Los Angeles. His family moved from east Texas during the Great Migration. Taylor is the youngest of eight children, and sometimes refers to himself as “Henry the Eighth.” Throughout his childhood, family, friends, and teachers exposed him to diverse forms of art and were influential in young Taylor's creative development.

Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taylor studied Journalism, Anthropology, and Set Design at Oxnard College, and then at the California Institute of the Arts. While studying at both institutions, Taylor worked nights as a psychiatric technician at the now closed Camarillo State Mental Hospital, sometimes making drawings of patients.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Taylor’s paintings, painted objects, and assemblage sculptures depict a profound and multifaceted picture of the United States. When describing his art he explains, “A lot of times I don’t want to pay attention to the political, I just want to paint…You can quote me on this: tell the truth."

i'm yours, 2015, is a painting based on a photograph of Taylor with his grown son Noah standing behind him. In the foreground, Taylor paints himself wearing a blue top and white collared shirt while gazing intensely at the viewer. Short colorful brushstrokes dot his face. On the far-left corner of the composition Taylor depicts his grown daughter Jade. Noah and Jade’s looks mirror their father’s. The work’s title, i’m yours, conjures up familial giving of oneself but also implies possession.