MFA 2020 Artists MFA 2020 Artists: Taylor Maroney

Biography

Taylor Maroney graduated with a BFA in painting from the University of New Hampshire in 2012. In 2017, UMass Dartmouth awarded Taylor the Distinguished Artist Fellowship to study in the MFA program, and in 2018, Taylor was the recipient of the Elizabeth Greensheid’s International Grant. A figurative artist since the beginning, Taylor uses the human form to create visual markers for abstract social constructions specifically in regards to race within the United States.

Statement

Painting has always been my way of processing information with my whole body. These paintings are an attempt to understand the ways my various social identities affect how I inhabit the physical world. My greatest focal point has been race; specifically whiteness.

Whiteness is determined by social forces, which are created and maintained by habitual action. Deleting the body of the figure points to the unseen, ubiquitous nature of these actions. I am using my own body to reenact these moments, the repetition indicative of something that builds over time. The figures overlay different iconographic cartographies which act as visual metaphors for the larger systemic structures that organize society. The painting becomes a spectrum, the figure representing the smallest piece of the system and the background, the whole.

Contact

taylor.a.maroney@gmail.com
Taylormaroney.com
@taylor.maroney

Slideshow

1. Curbside, 2019, oil on canvas, 84” x 144” (left)
   Harvestwood Development, 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105” (right)
2. Harvestwood Development, 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105”
3. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105”
4. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105”
5. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105”
6. Harvestwood Development (detail), 2019, oil on canvas, 55” x 105”
7. Installation view of the MFA Thesis Exhibition
8. Untitled, 2020, oil on wood, 36” x 72”
9. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36” x 72”
10. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36” x 72”
11. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36” x 72”
12. Untitled (detail), 2020, oil on wood, 36” x 72”

More Information

• University Art Gallery MFA Thesis Exhibition
• MFA Thesis Online Exhibition