‘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.
