Everette Taylor, the 31-year-old chief marketing officer of the online art marketplace Artsy, arrived in New York City only last winter, mere months before the city entered lockdown. But he’s quickly made himself at home. High above Canal Street, where SoHo’s shine meets Tribeca’s quiet charm, this serial entrepreneur has transformed a fourth-floor loft into a personal showcase for contemporary African American art—with reverence for the past but all eyes to the future.
“Friends urged me to consider places like Harlem or Brooklyn—which are great,” says Taylor, who previously founded ArtX along with a handful of social-media and digital-marketing start-ups. “But coming from Los Angeles, I wanted to be able to walk everywhere, and I now live just four minutes from our offices on Broadway.”
A work by Genevieve Gaignard in the dining area.
Sean Pressley
Paintings by Brittney Leeanne Williams (left) and Floyd Strickland.
Sean PressleyMobility, however, was only one of the considerations Taylor had when choosing his Manhattan home. The loft, with a private rooftop and an ample slate of bare walls, is also large enough to accommodate Taylor’s multimedia collection, which he mostly assembled while living in his former (and larger) California apartment.
“Visiting museums, galleries, and fairs was a form of self-care for me in Los Angeles,” says Virginia-born Taylor, who was guided through the Angeleno art scene by collector Arthur Lewis and gallerist Mariane Ibrahim. “When I finally got my first piece in 2017 [an abstract painting by the Afro-Latino artist Jon Hen], I realized how much more I could be doing with all of the blank spaces around me.”
Taylor with works by Jerrell Gibbs (left) and Sam Gilliam.
Sean Pressley, © 2020 Sam Gilliam / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
On the table, sculpture by Emmanuel Massillon.
Sean PressleyToday those spaces are anything but blank. From the living room to the stairwell to a nearly hidden laundry room, walls practically overflow with works by Black artists from every corner of the African diaspora. Pieces by West African–born rising stars like Amoako Boafo, from Ghana, and Jadé Fadojutimi, from Nigeria, mingle with treasures by established American talents such as Sam Gilliam, Derrick Adams, and Henry Taylor, who completed a portrait of the homeowner (no relation) on his last night in L.A. “Henry is like a big brother to me,” Taylor muses. “We were literally just hanging out and he said, ‘Let’s go to the garage,’ and he painted this piece in two hours and it has become my most prized possession.”
Supporting artists of color is more than a mere passion for Taylor, who is helping Artsy promote more diverse talents through a new digital showcase of Black-owned galleries and developed a recent public art campaign at MTA stations that honored essential workers. It has become a guiding professional philosophy. “I want to help create a more equitable playing field for Black artists and Black art,” says Taylor. “In my life, I cannot necessarily fix inequalities found in the fashion or design or music industries, but I can effect change in the world of art.”
Ultimately, Taylor intends to open a museum in Richmond to showcase his collection and highlight the power of art and art collecting to future generations. “The art world is still new to folks like me, who might arrive at a gallery in sneakers and a hoodie,” he explains. “But I want to show little Black and brown kids that having a life filled with
art is very much attainable.”
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Step Inside Everette Taylor's Art-filled Manhattan Loft - Architectural Digest
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