Trés Taylor is a contemporary self-taught painter. He was a biochemist for over 20 years, then after a visit with Southern folk artist R.A. Miller in 1998, was inspired to begin his journey as an artist. His medium is house paints and acrylics on roofing paper textured with putty and sealed with varnish. He paints about spiritual seeking, love, peace, and joy. His subjects are usually monks, couples, and houses, and range from the simple image of a monk solemnly holding flowers to extended narratives depicting journeys taken through relationships, through life, and through the world around us. Trés’ work reveals his deep connection to the beauty of the universe.
Trés and his wife Helene, recently moved to Selma, Alabama to center their lives in community arts. In 2018 he started a project called The Revolution of Joy creating murals across the Black Belt. So far he has done 10. These murals can be found in Birmingham, Selma, Marion, Camden, Uniontown, Greenville, Greensboro, and in Orrville. Trés draws the piece on a wall and the community comes out and paints it like a giant coloring book. The project is designed to build community.
Trés has exhibited in Japan, and widely throughout the United States. Some of his solo exhibitions include “Amaze- the Sacred Journey” at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, AL and “Catching the Wild Spirit” at Canyon Road Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.
His work can be found in several galleries and collections including Dupont Pioneer of Des Moines, IA, Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art of Savannah, GA, and is publicly displayed at Children’s of Alabama and the The Valley Hotel and Nextech in Birmingham, AL, among others. His installation, enCHANTment, was exhibited at the Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Florida in May 2014.
Trés’ paintings have been described as “expressing a simplicity that is the essence of life” (Over the Mountain Journal, 2007) and his “colorful expressionistic work of unconventional subject matter…makes you smile” (La Quinta Arts Festival, 2009). Critic Daniel A. Burr stated in his review of Pulling Off the Old Masks Just to See the Flowers Bloom Again, “In this work, Taylor’s naïve style of representation is wonderfully offset by the drama of his color scheme and the sophistication of his composition.” (Aeqai, 2018)
