Frame 61July 02, 2026K Contemporary

Taylor Anton White

Frame 61July 02, 2026K Contemporary

“This is one of the things that I love about making art - that I can say more than I realize I’m saying, that my decisions in paintings can be read differently than I expect, and that art is a great place to play that game with myself.”

Our interview with Taylor Anton White, where we talk about his solo show ‘Static Believes in You’ on view from 20 June to 25 July at K Contemporary in Santa Fe. Having served in the Marine Corps before finding his way into the art world, he describes how stepping into an art department felt magical and instinctively the right path for him. His paintings sit in a charged space where absurdity collides with panic and tension, balancing humour with an underlying sense of unease. Figures, objects, and fragmented scenes feel unstable, as if caught between logic and collapse. In this conversation, White reflects on his instinctive approach to image-making, the role of material and pacing, and how his work navigates that uneasy edge between the familiar and the unpredictable.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

I was born in 1978, in San Diego, California, but I pretty much grew up in North Carolina. Drawing has always been a part of my life since I was a kid, and I think I became interested in it initially from watching my father draw a schematic for something he was building in our garage. I made terrible grades in school, and then eventually went off to serve in the Marine Corps for nine years. When I got out of the Marines, I really felt like I was searching for who I was, and what I needed to do with my life after that, so I decided to go to college. I never really knew about art schools or anything, and I just chose the closest college to my house. I thought I was going to go there for psychology, but then I found out that they had an art department. As soon as I walked in, I knew I was in the right place, It just immediately felt magical there. and I knew I would follow this path for the rest of my life.

You have your debut solo show 'Static Believes in You' opening June 20th at K Contemporary in Santa Fe. The title itself feels like it's reaching out and destabilizing you at the same time. Could you tell us about the show and the meaning behind the title?

For me, titles just seem to kinda come out of nowhere. I really don’t think too hard about them, or try to overtly tie a title to a show. It’s also this way with many of my titles of paintings. To me, it’s really about a feeling that a title gives me, or some mental image that arrives. With “Static Believes in You” it came to me while riding my bike, and I kept thinking about a static spark leaping up from a carpeted floor and connecting to a person’s sock. Like the idea of tiny lightning. Sometimes I like to think of it as the static being a reminder of a field of consciousness around us, sparking at us, reminding us that it's all around us, and not simply contained within us.

*‘Static Believes in You’ at K Contemporary, 2026*

There is a strong undercurrent of humor running through your work but it never feels like a joke. The grinning faces, the disembodied legs, the houses that look like they are about to walk away on their own. It reads more like nervous laughter than comedy. Can you talk about the role humor plays in how you process heavier subject matter, and whether that comedic edge is something you lean into deliberately or something that just shows up naturally when you are working?

Absurdity has always been something that I love in paintings, and really in all types of creative things that I pay attention to, I just love it. But I’ve also long been attracted to the feeling of panic, tension, urgency, and sometimes doom sort of competing with humor and absurdity in a painting. The balancing point between these two types of moods is something I instinctively install in many of my paintings. I really never realized I was doing it, it just felt right, and other people noticed it and then I started recognizing that I was doing it. This is one of the things that I love about making art - that I can say more than I realize I’m saying, that my decisions in paintings can be read differently than I expect, and that art is a great place to play that game with myself.

Your paintings feel like they sit right at the intersection of drawing and painting, using everything from charcoal and oil stick to spray paint and thick paint. How do you decide which materials to reach for when you start a new piece, and does the material itself ever change the direction of the work once you get going?

I’m a big fan of making kinda arbitrary material selections when starting a painting. I often do this to set up a series of problems that need to be solved in the painting, and that’s where other materials come into play. Sometimes I initially start a painting that is made entirely with oil, but not really because of the differences in appearance between oil and acrylic paint. In many cases, I often will use oil specifically because I’m forcing a different pacing on myself, due to the long drying time. This difference in pacing changes decisions in a painting for me. So, many of my material decisions in painting are really rooted in things like pacing, speed, a sense of urgency - or something slower, more careful, and intentional.

Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?

I’m pretty much in my studio most of the time, haha. In general, I show up early in the morning and I work until I’m really hungry, or I’m stuck on a problem. If I’m stuck, I often just go ride my bike somewhere (in regular clothes, not spandex) and it always gets me unstuck, and that’s been pretty reliable for the last few years. My studio is in an old school building in Richmond, Virginia, and my studio used to be a big classroom. It’s a great space for making paintings, I love it here.

What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

There's a series of small paintings that I love looking at when I visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, titled “Count Sandor's Hunting Exploits in Leicestershire: No. 6: The Count on "Brigliadora" Charges a Wide and Deep Drain in the Vale of Belvoir.” It’s a group of images of this guy “Count Sandor” trying to jump across a creek on his horse and he keeps falling off in each painting. I think it’s from 1829. I always look at it when I’m there, I just love it.

Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?

I’m getting ready to do a residency in Barcelona beginning this September. I’m really excited to go there and experiment in a new environment, and see what happens in my paintings and drawings. Can’t wait!

Artist’s Website

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K Contemporary

All images courtesy of the artist and K Contemporary
Interview publish date: 02/07/2026
Interview by Richard Starbuck

Frame 61