Honor Titus at Henry Taylor Gallery

Artist Henry Taylor likes to host parties. Over the past couple of years, he’s been hosting pop-up exhibitions in his studio, each one featuring a young emerging artist. This act — an established top-selling artist putting his weight behind a younger up-and-comer — can have a lot of sway. This last weekend, Taylor opened up his studio with a selection of paintings from L.A.-based Honor Titus, playfully titled Goodness Gracious. The paintings are both moody and humorous (one is cheekily titled Tom Hanks at Lassens), and they feel quietly cinematic, although the plotline is always evasive. The press release describes Titus: “His moral stance is one of openness to the world, ready to take on experiences and belong to something greater than he is.” Indeed, Titus’ paintings become conduits of little fragmented moments: Men watch a movie in a theatre; a jazz player sits on a chair by the window playing trumpet; a group of hands throw confetti, celebrating a horse race. The dream-like quality and delicate linework of these uncanny paintings pull you in, although the lack of narrative — intentional or not — can feel a bit frustrating as a viewer.