The Burden of Water

Exhibition Dates:
November 7 - December 19, 2025

Opening Reception:
Friday, November 7, 2025, 5:00-9:00pm

Rivalry Projects is thrilled to present The Burden of Water, an exhibition by Rodney Taylor (1966 - 2019). Creating somber, yet hopeful paintings on canvas and paper, Taylor utilized materials such as acrylic, flashe, pastel, plasticine, and earth clay to channel the frantic energy of our environment and highlight the vulnerabilities of a changing world. 

Throughout his practice, Taylor explored a wide range of topics including environmental destabilization, the failings of our government, economic disparities, and the tenuous nature of his own health. The exhibition includes various series that depict colorful forests of birch trees, in states of growth and decay; views of the Capitol building under duress - flooded, crumbling, or on fire; large-scale black and white gridded matrices that appear like electrical grids or aerial views of city blocks - an ode to the micro and macrocosms of a humming community; and ghost-like structures of homes and domestic interiors that were inspired by the economic disparities of neighborhoods in Buffalo, New York.

Speaking a similar visual language to the color-field abstractionists, Taylor’s treatment of color recalls the works of Clyfford Still or Mark Rothko, coupled with the frenetic compositions of Brice Marden, who was a close friend. However, instead of replicating their peripheral scale and contemplative nature, Taylor created destabilizing, highly specific monuments. He was fascinated by perpetual change and degradation - materially and metaphorically. Painting with a fresco-like technique, which he then often excavated, the surfaces of his paintings appear soft yet brittle, recalling skin, bark, or dried riverbeds. This emphasis on water – or its lack – also grounds much of the work. For Taylor, water held immense power. It swallowed up buildings, flooded residential streets, or ceased to exist, but it was also the source of life and what has the ability to extinguish a flame. 

The Burden of Water features series dating from 2005 to 2019, alongside a selection of sketchbooks, writing, and other ephemera. The exhibition intentionally demonstrates the breadth of Taylor’s work while highlighting his ability to approach these topics with a raw yet hopeful sensitivity. He felt deeply and did not stray away from telling difficult truths. Instead he forcefully addressed deficiencies in the systems that surrounded him, with the hope to chart a productive path forward. In 2025, Taylor’s work feels entirely prophetic. He was fascinated by the eventual collapse of our environment, our government, our resources - problems that have only become more urgent in the years since his death.

The Burden of Water will be on view from November 7 - December 19, 2025, and is Taylor’s first posthumous presentation. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with Taylor’s wife, Annette Daniels Taylor, and their four children Mingus, Bleu-Ruby, Haven, and Winter Sky. 

WORKS

Installation ImageS

coming soon…

About the Artist

Rodney Taylor (b. 1966 - d. 2019) created somber, yet hopeful, paintings utilizing materials such as acrylic, flashe, pastel, pencil, and clay to channel the frantic energy of our environment and highlight the vulnerabilities of a changing world. Prior to his passing in 2019, Taylor exhibited widely across Western New York, with solo presentations at Nina Freudenheim, Eleven Twenty Projects, UB Art Galleries, and Hallwalls Contemporary Center. Most recently, Taylor was included in Open House: Domestic Thresholds, alongside Heather Hart and Edra Soto, at the Albright Knox Northland. Other group exhibitions include presentations at Rochester Contemporary Art Center; Empire Fine Arts, Miami; Langston Hughes Cultural Center, Buffalo; The Drawing Center, New York; Kenny Schacter; and the Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, among others. Taylor was a resident at Skowhegan in 1994, and attended FIT, Cooper Union, and matriculated from Bard in 1996. He lived in Buffalo with his wife and four children until his death in 2019.