James Cohan is pleased to present These Days, an exhibition of new work by Alison Elizabeth Taylor, on view at 48 Walker Street from May 17 through June 24, 2023. This is Taylor’s seventh solo exhibition with James Cohan. The gallery will host an opening reception with the artist on Friday, May 19 from 6-8 PM.
Over the past twenty years, Taylor’s highly original approach to marquetry and image making has challenged conventional assumptions about art and the definition of painting. These Days reflects life in a post-pandemic America, where vacations, social gatherings, video game arcades and public gambling have returned. In this new era, these works pose the question “what has changed?” Drawing from life, Taylor’s subjects hail from cities as diverse as Brooklyn, Las Vegas, and Mexico City. Portraits of the artist’s friends and family who departed New York during the pandemic are intermixed with scenes that capture the decadence and spectacle of Southwestern casino culture and the grit of Brooklyn’s stoops and storefronts. Whether depicting moments of late capitalist indulgence in her hometown of Las Vegas or the struggle to survive in her chosen home of New York, Taylor’s sharp social observation and empathy for her subjects come to the fore.