Exhibition

Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange

March 2, 2023–October 22, 2023

A contemporary art installation by the artist Henry Taylor. A person walks near a totem created from a bale of house siding gathered as post-industrial waste. Atop the totem is a black flag. Behind it is a large painted backdrop, draping from the ceiling.
© Henry Taylor, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. “Nothing Change, Nothing Strange,” 2023. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.

“Palpably enticing” —Vogue

The result of an 18-month residency, this ambitious exhibition features an immersive sculptural environment created through Henry Taylor’s continued exploration of painting and sculpture alongside his first experimentation with textiles.

Nothing Change, Nothing Strange exemplifies many of the themes that run through Taylor’s practice and investigates the boundaries that have historically divided painting and sculpture. During his residency, Taylor collaborated with the FWM Studio team to assemble materials sourced from the Recycled Artists in Residency program (RAIR)—a non-profit organization focusing on the intersection of art, industry, and waste. Dissecting, merging, and mending these recycled materials has enabled Taylor to forge a previously uncharted avenue in his ever-expanding artistic process while examining how people and materials are held together, separated, and categorized both socially and systematically. In Nothing Change, Nothing Strange, Taylor considers the signifying potential of color and pattern, the complexity and parameters of space, and the historical persistence of oppression—illustrated by the exhibition’s very title.

Exhibition Teaser

© Henry Taylor, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. “Nothing Change, Nothing Strange,” 2023. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Video: George MacLeod.

Location

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
Second Floor

Opening Reception

Wednesday, March 1, 2023, 6:00–8:00 pm

Art in This Exhibition

Artists in This Exhibition

Press

Meeting Henry Taylor, Afro-American legend of contemporary art
Charlotte Jansen, Numéro, July 5, 2021

Museum Exhibits in Philly to Check Out Before They Disappear
Allie Volpe, Thrillist, March 6, 2023

The Creative Archive: Philadelphia Edition – The Oldest Emerging City
Amy Peebles, Glossi Mag, August 23, 2023

12 Art Shows to See in Philadelphia This Summer
Isabella Segalovich , Hyperallergic, July 6, 2023

Henry Taylor Unravels the Fabric of White Supremacy
Ilene Dube, Hyperallergic, July 3, 2023

A Repurposed Sea
Pamela J. Forsythe, Broad Street Review, May 1, 2023

Henry Taylor, L.A.’s Favorite Painter, Flips the Retrospective
Michael Slenske, Los Angeles Magazine, April 1, 2023

Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange
Sculpture Magazine, March 27, 2023

Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange
Saul Ostrow, Tussle Magazine, March 23, 2023

The gleeful anarchy of Henry Taylor’s ‘Nothing Change, Nothing Strange’ at the Fabric Workshop and Museum
Alex Smith, The Artblog, March 22, 2023

With an Inventive New Exhibition in Philadelphia, Henry Taylor Has Serious Fun
Robert Sullivan, Vogue, March 22, 2023

Philadelphia Weekender: March 3-5, 2023
Isaac Avilucea, Axios Philadelphia, March 3, 2023

Henry Taylor Paints His People
Terence Trouillot, Frieze, January 5, 2023

The Fabric Workshop and Museum presents 'Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange'
Jose Villarreal, Art Daily, March 3, 2023

Philadelphia Flower Show, Philly Fashion Week, First Friday at the Barnes, and Trombone Shorty in this week’s ‘Things To Do’
Tonya Pendleton, WHYY, March 2, 2023

The Top 9 Things To Do in Philadelphia in March
Julia Morlino, Philadelphia Style Magazine, March 1, 2023

The BSR Weekly Arts and Culture Roundup, March 2 – 8, 2023
Kyle V. Hiller, Broad Street Review, March 1, 2023

Dispatch | Agenda
Allison Weiss Brady, Philadelphia Style Magazine, March 1, 2023

Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange
Elena Clavarino, Air Mail, February 25, 2023

Henry Taylor, ‘Nothing Change, Nothing Strange’ at Fabric Workshop and Museum, plus ‘Office Hours’ at Automat, Mayoral Forum on the Performing Arts and more
Niko Walczuk, The Artblog, February 16, 2023

35 New Things to Do in Greater Philadelphia for 2023
Visit Philadelphia, January 19, 2023

Artist Henry Taylor Covers Frieze Magazine: ‘I Became the Observer Because I Was Trying to Understand My Own Life, That’s Why I Started Making Pictures as a Kid’
Victoria L. Valentine, The Culture Type, January 13, 2023

Henry Taylor
Leah Triplett Harrington, Sculpture Magazine, September 15, 2023

Downloadable Media and Related Links

Download the Press ReleaseDownload the Press Release

About the Artist

American, born 1958, lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Henry Taylor was initially exposed to the medium of painting through his father, who was a commercial painter at a naval air station. In junior high school, Taylor vigorously absorbed the major tenets of art historical discourse spanning the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. Taylor later studied journalism, anthropology, and set design at Oxnard College where he made the acquaintance of James Jarvaise, the Head of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Jarvaise was instrumental in instilling the young painter with a sense of vocational efficacy that helped Taylor focus his efforts entirely on his artistic practice. Taylor’s formal training came in the 1990s, when he studied at The California Institute of the Arts while also working as a psychiatric technician at Camarillo State Mental Hospital.

Taylor has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and internationally, including solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York (2012) and The Studio Museum in Harlem (2007). His work was also presented at the Whitney Biennial (2017) and the 58th Venice Biennale (2019). Taylor’s works are held in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, among others. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Taylor is currently the subject of a thirty-year retrospective, Henry Taylor: B Side on view until April 30, 2023 at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and will travel to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York later this year.

About the Curator

Nothing Change, Nothing Strange is organized by Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs DJ Hellerman, and Senior Project Coordinator Abby Lutz in collaboration with the artist and the FWM Studio team. The project was initiated by Karen Patterson, FWM’s former Director of Exhibitions.

Support

Major support for Henry Taylor: Nothing Change, Nothing Strange has been generously provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from Katie Adams Schaeffer and Tony Schaeffer, Hauser & Wirth and Anonymous donors.

In-kind support has been provided by RAIR (Recycled Artists in Residency) and Hauser & Wirth.

Major support of FWM is provided by the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation. FWM receives state art funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund and the Board of Directors and Members of The Fabric Workshop and Museum.