TAYT MODERN

TaytModern.com

@taytmodern

Artist Statement

My work is rooted in intuition, observation and the process of discovery. I am interested in the point at which a familiar image begins to feel slightly unfamiliar—where beauty, nostalgia or playfulness can coexist with loneliness, unease and the sense that something beneath the surface has shifted.

At times my paintings inhabit a world of light emerging from shadow: solitary figures, interiors, streets and moments that feel suspended somewhere between memory and a noir dream. At other times the work becomes brighter and more playful, drawing on the visual language of popular culture, saturated colour and graphic composition. Even in these lighter works, however, there is often a crack in the mirror—a suggestion that beneath the colour and playfulness, something isn't entirely right.

For me, painting is ultimately an act of trust: knowing when to impose intention and when to relinquish it; recognizing an image when it presents itself; and allowing beauty and disturbance, humour and melancholy, light and shadow to occupy the same space.

BIO

Chris Tait (Tayt Modern) is a Vancouver-born visual artist whose work moves between carefully constructed figurative compositions and a more intuitive process of allowing images to emerge through paint. His paintings frequently explore the intersection of beauty, nostalgia and unease, moving between shadowed, cinematic imagery and a brighter, playful visual language.

Tait has been represented by Studio EL Fine Art Publishing in San Francisco since 2025 and has exhibited internationally, including two appearances in the Los Angeles Art Walk through Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts. His broader creative practice has long crossed between visual art, music and immersive events. His projects have included a contracted performance/installation with Shadowline at the Vancouver Art Gallery, independent exhibitions and multidisciplinary art-and-music events in Vancouver, and exhibitions and presentations of his work in Los Angeles. His work is held in private collections in Canada and the United States.

artwork above: Reflections of a Table for One, acrylic on canvas