University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Taylor Maroney working in studio
MFA 2020 Artists MFA 2020 Artists: Taylor Maroney
Taylor Maroney

榴莲视频 2020 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Biography

Taylor Maroney graduated with a BFA in painting from the University of New Hampshire in 2012. In 2017, 榴莲视频 awarded Taylor the Distinguished Artist Fellowship to study in the MFA program, and in 2018, Taylor was the recipient of the Elizabeth Greensheid鈥檚 International Grant. A figurative artist since the beginning, Taylor uses the human form to create visual markers for abstract social constructions specifically in regards to race within the United States.

Statement

Painting has always been my way of processing information with my whole body. These paintings are an attempt to understand the ways my various social identities affect how I inhabit the physical world. My greatest focal point has been race; specifically whiteness.

Whiteness is determined by social forces, which are created and maintained by habitual action. Deleting the body of the figure points to the unseen, ubiquitous nature of these actions. I am using my own body to reenact these moments, the repetition indicative of something that builds over time. The figures overlay different iconographic cartographies which act as visual metaphors for the larger systemic structures that organize society. The painting becomes a spectrum, the figure representing the smallest piece of the system and the background, the whole.

Contact

taylor.a.maroney@gmail.com

Gallery installation view
Bracing, oil on canvas, 36" x 110" (left), and Curbside, 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥 (right).
Bracing, oil on canvas, 36
Bracing (detail), oil on canvas, 36" x 110"
Bracing, oil on canvas, 36
Bracing (detail), oil on canvas, 36" x 110"
Bracing, oil on canvas, 36
Bracing (detail), oil on canvas, 36" x 110"
Curbside, oil on canvas, 84
Curbside, 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥
Curbside, oil on canvas, 84
Curbside (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥
Curbside, oil on canvas, 84
Curbside (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥
Curbside, oil on canvas, 84
Curbside (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥

Slideshow

  1. Curbside, 2019, oil on canvas, 84鈥 x 144鈥 (left)
    Harvestwood Development, 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥 (right)
  2. Harvestwood Development, 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥
  3. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥
  4. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥
  5. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥
  6. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55鈥 x 105鈥
  7. Installation view of the MFA Thesis Exhibition
  8. Untitled, 2020, oil on wood, 36鈥 x 72鈥
  9. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36鈥 x 72鈥
  10. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36鈥 x 72鈥
  11. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36鈥 x 72鈥
  12. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36鈥 x 72鈥
Photo credits: Kate Couturier

More Information