photo: Kevin Wilson
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It is the sheer visual presence of my subjects that fascinates me—not just the way they are, but the way they seem to be. This has necessarily meant working slowly from life, one canvas at a time.
‘Still Life’; an exhibition of recent work at the Portland Gallery opens on 5th June 2025. The exhibition can be viewed online at their website here.
To quote from the catalogue notes:
‘Michael Taylor’s new collection of still lifes are an invitation to look — and to think about looking. The paintings allow us to inhabit spaces and range over textures.
Viewed at a distance or on a screen, they seem smooth and flawless. Get close, in person, and a mosaic of inventive brushstrokes appears….
Focussing on small collections of objects, these newer paintings seem minimalist when compared to Taylor’s figurative works of a few years earlier…..
The desire to make pots is just as strong as the desire to make likenesses of hands and faces. Other than our own skeletons, the thing we humans reliably leave behind are shards of ceramics.’ Alfie Robinson
About Portland Gallery:
‘Our exhibition programme has concentrated primarily on representing the best modern and contemporary figurative artists working in traditional media. In parallel, Portland have enjoyed considerable success as dealers in abstract paintings and sculptures by some of the most prominent figures of 20th century British Art.’
The exhibition continues until 20th June. Enquiries to jasmine@portlandgallery.com
Alfie Robinson
Old masters’ still lifes tell us ‘memento mori’. Michael Taylor’s still lifes tell us, among other things, ‘non omnis moriar’ — I shall not wholly die.
Welcome to my new website. Intended primarily as an online gallery featuring a selection of my paintings from over the years, I will also keep it updated with recent, current and forthcoming news in these posts.
To mark the occasion I have selected one picture from each of the five categories listed in the menus: Figures, Interiors, Still Lifes, Heads and Portraits. I am aware that these groupings may appear fairly arbitrary. Indeed many paintings might be in any, or several catagories, but we felt it helpful to break them up a bit for convenience and accessibility.
Many thanks to Philip Rees (Reflecting Head) for creating it for me, for taking such care and pains over its design and construction and for his patience with my low-tech nature.
I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for looking.
It is over ten years now since I was commissioned by Wes Anderson to create the fictional renaissance ‘masterpiece’ Boy with Apple (by my alter ego Johannes Van Hoytl, the younger) for his wonderful movie The Grand Budapest Hotel. The original painting has now been loaned by Wes from his personal collection to a major retrospective exhibition of his work in Paris.
The exhibition, at la Cinémathèque Française, follows the evolution of his films from his first experiments in the 1990s, up to his most recent Oscar-winning productions. With original props, costumes, and behind-the-scenes insights, including from his personal collection, this exhibition offers an unprecedented look into the world of Wes Anderson.
A collaboration with the Design Museum, the exhibition will move on to their London space in November 2025 before, in Wes’s words “It becomes a travelling circus”, and so begins an extended world tour in 2026.
Definitely time now to go and watch the film again…..
Curator Johanna Agerman Ross (from the exhibition catalogue)
….the stature of Boy with Apple eventually transcended the screen altogether. It was treated differently to all other props during filming, being packed in its own crate and staying with Anderson himself throughout the shoot. Subsequently, it has gained its own Wikipedia page and become Taylor’s most famous work.
I am currently working towards my forthcoming exhibition at the Portland Gallery this coming June.
Largely consisting of peaceful and contemplative new still life compositions, the exhibition (my first with the Portland) runs from 5th-20th June 2025 and will be held on the lower floor of the gallery.
For enquiries about the exhibition please contact Jasmine Winter jasmine@portlandgallery.com Portland Gallery, 3 Bennet St, London SW1A 1RP
Illustrated is a detail from one of the new works featuring a porcelain Korean calligrapher’s water dropper.
I am pleased to now be represented by Portland Gallery, London and will be showing new works with them in June 2025.
This is a happy development for me having worked with Jamie Anderson for sixteen years at Waterhouse and Dodd before he moved to be director of Portland, so he is already aware of all my quirks and foibles. I now look forward to working with the team at the Gallery which is situated just off Piccadilly at 3 Bennett Street, London SW1A 1RP.
Portland Gallery are leading dealers in Modern and Contemporary British art. Their two-floor gallery in St James’s hosts up to fourteen exhibitions a year; largely solo presentations of work by their represented artists and estates. Throughout the history of the gallery, their exhibition programme has concentrated primarily in representing the best modern and contemporary figurative artists working in traditional media. In parallel, Portland are dealers in abstract paintings and sculptures by some of the most prominent figures of 20th century British Art.
