The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) announced today that it will honor Los Angeles artist Henry Taylor at the second annual Benefit Brunch on Saturday, May 12. A special tribute to celebrate the honoree will be presented by Mark Bradford, a longtime champion of Taylor and designer of ICA LA’s transformational logo. The brunch will be held in ICA LA’s main gallery. This year’s hosts include Geoffrey Anenberg, Vera R. Campbell, Laura Donnelley, Honor Fraser, Gagosian, Gianna Drake-Kerrison and Dee Kerrison, Karen Hillenburg, Sydney D. Holland, Roxana Landaverde and Charles Gaines, Miriam Rothbart, Michael Silver, V. Joy Simmons, MD, and Helen Thorpe.
“Henry Taylor’s paintings portray a bold and complex narrative of friends, family, and local characters who populate an urban landscape at once perilous and exuberant,” said Elsa Longhauser, The Goodworks Executive Director. “His paintings reflect these incongruous elements—sometimes the same artwork will feel both celebratory and subversive, hovering ambiguously between these two perspectives. Henry had his first museum exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art ten years ago.
Charles Gaines, 2018 Benefit Bruch Host and ICA LA Board Member added, “Henry is one of the most important figurative painters working today. What makes his work unique is that it introduces us to the things and people that both concern and matter to him. His figures are presented as subjects, but they are also guides that take us through his idea of the truth of the human condition.”
“Honoring Henry reflects on the museum’s ethos of supporting artists that challenge the way we see and experience the world,” said Laura Donnelley, ICA LA Board President and 2018 Benefit Brunch Host. “It is a great privilege to pay tribute to his contribution to the contemporary art world as an esteemed painter and as a steadfast friend to the museum.”