Jill Mulleady (*1980 in Montevideo, Uruguay) and Henry Taylor (*1958, in Ventura, USA) share a long-standing, close friendship and an absolute dedication to painting. The duo exhibition You Me is testimony to a bond between two artists of different generations, origins and socialization, in which painting and the constant reference to art history act as a common denominator. In their figurative imagery, Mulleady and Taylor reveal ambivalences that inevitably demand a positioning of the viewer in relation to painting in the juxtaposition of the private and the public as well as the representation of bodies. The octagonal architecture of the pavilion becomes a glass panopticon that is repeated in the exhibition space, in whose illusory surfaces the painted figures and scenes are reflected, superimposed and distorted.
Jill Mulleady’s paintings show different perspectives on the recurring subject of a dimly lit bedroom, through which a narrative unfolds almost imperceptibly. When entering the mirrored panopticon, you can watch the viewers almost voyeuristically as they immerse themselves in the intimate pictorial worlds, protected from outside eyes. In addition to two works by Henry Taylor, drawings by Otto Dix and Käthe Kollwitz in particular cast the supposedly innocent scene in a new, ambivalent light.
Like Jill Mulleady, Henry Taylor also draws on iconic works such as Marcel Duchamp’s famous nude descending down a staircase or Édouard Manet’s scandalous painting Dejeuner sur L’Herbe and creates his own versions that are rooted in African-American history. In the ground floor, further paintings by Henry Taylor show the realities of black life in the USA. What at first glance can be perceived as a peaceful scene, reveals in the next moment the deeply rooted racist structures that still divide US society today. In his depictions, Henry Taylor captures people, places and events and resists a clear stylistic classification. In addition to well-known personalities, he portrays neighbors or friends in his studio, or spontaneous encounters that he captures in fleeting sketches.
Curated by Lina Louisa Krämer
Project assistants: Ella Křivánek & Anaïs Nyffeler