Artists

Taylor Simmons is a self-taught painter working across painting, printmaking, and drawing. His practice is built around a vast personal archive of compulsively collected imagery — drawn from found photographs, music, and viral video — which he translates into layered, neon-suffused compositions that oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Working in acrylic, oil, airbrush, and wax, his canvases sample fragments of lived experience spanning his upbringing in Atlanta and his years in New York City, probing themes of Black masculinity, youthful play, human nature, and everyday life.

A near-fatal cycling accident in the summer of 2020 proved a turning point in Simmons's practice. During his month-long recovery, he immersed himself in archival imagery — particularly photographs of the American South from the 1980s and 90s — deepening the nostalgic and autobiographical current that runs through his work. Following his recovery, he left his position at Ralph Lauren to dedicate himself fully to painting. He was named to the Artsy Vanguard 2025, the publication's annual selection of the most promising artists in contemporary art.

Solo exhibitions include presentations at Public Gallery (London), Helena Anrather (New York), and Sixi Museum (Nanjing, China). His work is held in the permanent collections of the X Museum, the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, the Igal Ahouvi Art Collection, and the Sixi Museum. He was an artist in residence at the Macedonia Institute.