During our visit to the Simchowitz Hill House in Pasadena, we had the opportunity to speak with artist Ken Taylor Reynaga about his work. Ken Taylor Reynaga’s art captures the intimate yet complex experiences of everyday life, particularly within immigrant and working-class communities. Born in Southern California and raised in Bakersfield, Reynaga’s background in the agricultural Central Valley deeply informs his work. He explores themes of cultural identity, masculinity, and class through scenes that may seem ordinary—like family meals, backyard parties, or soccer games—but reveal deeper social narratives. His paintings, often created on unconventional surfaces like tablecloths or bed sheets, blend figuration with abstraction, highlighting small yet significant details, such as a cowboy hat beside a floral table arrangement. Reynaga’s works offer a fresh perspective on Chicanx and Latinx art, defying conventional categorization.
Interview with Ken Taylor Reynaga / Simchowitz Hill House, Pasadena. October 20, 2024.
Interview with Ken Taylor Reynaga / Simchowitz Hill House, Pasadena. October 20, 2024.
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00:00I'm Ken Taylor Reynaga and this is Ada, my daughter, and I'm a painter out in Chino, California.
00:10And you have a barn here at Stefan's Hill House.
00:15Yeah.
00:16How did it come about?
00:18I think, you know, after Stefan, you know, saw this property and this opportunity and then he made these barns
00:28and he's kind of designated one to just showing my work kind of permanently.
00:34So I think that's, you know, Stefan's always trying to reinvent the way we're buying or looking or seeing art.
00:42So I think that's his way of like maybe not preparing for a show every year and just making work and then showing it like fluid.
00:51How did you meet him?
00:53I met Stefan through a friend actually. I was dropping off some sculptures.
00:58My friend, I had a minivan and my friend needed help dropping off some sculptures.
01:03So I just helped him and then he asked me if I was an artist.
01:06And then, yeah, from there we started just talking.
01:11I showed him work and then we probably started working together a year after we met.
01:16Yeah.
01:18And what are you showing at the moment at the Hill House?
01:22You know, I still haven't seen it, so it's going to be a surprise for me, but I'm pretty sure paintings.
01:33Yeah, I'm just going to be showing some paintings.
01:35You know, I kind of like feel like when you're working with someone, it's a collaboration.
01:40And I kind of step out of the curatorial aspect of it.
01:45And I just let Stefan and his team show how they see the work, you know.
01:54Eventually, you know, I think like the work will just kind of all narrate itself in the end.
02:04And you have your studio here in Los Angeles?
02:06Yeah, in Chino, California.
02:08So it's like 30 minutes outside of L.A.
02:15So how does it work?
02:17You work in your studio and Stefan selects works from time to time?
02:29You know, it works pretty organically.
02:33We work together in a sense where, you know, I'm making work and then, yeah, he's just selecting, you know, what he wants to show.
02:45Tell me a little bit about your work.
02:47What are your main topics?
02:50So how are you working?
02:52What gets you inspired?
02:54To me, I feel like, well, obviously, like art imitates life and life imitates art.
02:59So I'm always trying to like live this life that I feel like has inspiration and stuff.
03:04And so I draw from real life.
03:06So like my practice is really like me studying real life and painting and like making drawings and stuff like that.
03:12And then when I go to the studio, I try to take all that experience that I have in the world and come up with not even come up with actually.
03:21Like I just have a dialogue with this painting like this square.
03:25So then I see what the thing's telling me and then I paint on it and then I see what that's telling.
03:30And then I see what I'm saying.
03:32And then we kind of just work until we have this kind of like formal, you know, something that's formally kind of like where I can agree with.
03:41Like, OK, the color is good.
03:43The the the concept, I mean, the the composition and then the like what my paintings end up becoming is like basically, you know, my life.
03:54So like Southern California, you know, Mexican-American imagery, colors, tradition.
04:03And I try to like let like performance kind of influence my my paintings, you know, turn the music up, like set the vibe, set this like spiritual way of just kind of like art for me is my religion.
04:15So it's like my way of like, you know, accepting the world, talking about the world, healing from my past and all my shit that I have.
04:25So that way I can pass on some good vibes and not like, you know, just bring fucking destruction to the world, which there's enough of that probably.
04:35I would like to say like my art's like on the side of love, you know, which is not like popular.
04:42Normally it's like more popular to destroy it or something.
04:46It was a topic that you recently covered or something in theme.
04:50Yeah. What did you think about and then translate it into a painting?
04:56Well, I like to think about like the landscape and like the Wild West.
04:59So it's like people like to think like, oh, California and like, you know, they don't really understand that California was was was already there.
05:11People were living here already, natives. And then, you know, after the Sombrero came and the handgun that more people started moving west because they could fight, you know, natives with arrows.
05:25So then it becomes like this place that's become incorporated and and become like a city based off of just people kind of coming here.
05:32It hasn't it's not like the East Coast, like east of the Rockies is like like more people from Europe and that type of like culture.
05:41And now here it's like all those cultures met, but there's too much space.
05:45And it's it's still kind of like the Wild West, you know, like people walk around, you know, people walk around with guns everywhere.
05:51But like out here, it's like, you know, I have, you know, friends in middle school walking to school with the gun, you know, because you protect yourself.
06:00And it's like that's that mentality that I feel like kind of shows up in the work.
06:05And I use motifs like the cowboy hat to kind of represent these feelings of it.
06:09Not really like direct imagery, you know.
06:14Did you have could you describe, you know, where your way of putting it on the canvas comes from?
06:26Have you been to the university to study?
06:30So I went to Cal State Bakersfield.
06:32And there I learned about like painting from Joey Cotting and Sarah Vanderlip, who worked for Kiki Smith and Chris Burden.
06:41And so it was actually kind of like this conceptual idea of painting, like the first idea was like, how can you make a painting without painting?
06:47And I kind of grew up selling in a swap meet.
06:52So me and my family, we traveled down to Tijuana and then buy stuff in Mexico and then come back and sell it out here.
06:58So there's a lot of artisanal kind of thing.
07:01So I use the kind of like these two things in my my practice, like where it's like this artisanal version of like, hey, you need a painting like I'll make you a painting.
07:09Versus like, hey, can you make a painting without painting?
07:12And like this like idea of conceptual art, you know, what was taught to me in like a university.
07:18And then like my experience of seeing like, wow, like this person is just painting every day because that's what they have to do to make a living.
07:28So I think like I have this kind of play about like, how can I make this like traditional artisanal painting?
07:35Like have the depth of like some sort of concept or theory of painting, you know?
07:43And I used I normally try to just, you know, it's about layers to me.
07:47It's like the more dynamic you can make a painting and like figure out like a painting is like a puzzle to me.
07:56So I'm like building a puzzle and it's like, how complex can that puzzle be?
08:00Like sometimes a simple puzzle is really nice and easy.
08:03But typically, you know, I'm trying to build puzzles that do, you know, you have to it's like listening to some experimental jazz.
08:12You got to kind of like adjust your taste to it, you know, and like let it sink in.
08:20How do you know a painting is finished or when the puzzle is done, you know?
08:27I don't think it ever is done.
08:28I think a lot of artists talk about this, but it's never done.
08:31It's never done. It's just, you know, it's just left alone.
08:36But but you can feel it, right?
08:39Do you feel it like when you see something, you know, like that's done, but it's not done.
08:43It's just like that's I want that how it is.
08:47It's like a person like you fall in love. You're like, are you done?
08:50Like, no, you're not done, but I like you the way you are right now.
08:54So that's like even almost more kind of like perfect, right?
08:58It's like you accept the imperfections because I mean a painting.
09:01It's like, what do you like? I'm not going for this perfect thing because it's kind of like,
09:08I think it's insane to go for something perfect, you know, like it's not.
09:14Sometimes perfection is not perfect.
09:16Yeah, there's no. So I kind of like that loose kind of, you know, in the moment,
09:22like back to what I was saying with my painting, it's like I try to gather experience through practice.
09:26So like I'll draw a tree, I'll draw an avocado tree.
09:29So I've been making a series on avocado trees.
09:33And what I do is I look, there's a avocado tree where I live and I just look at it.
09:39And then when I go to the studio, I try to paint it from that experience.
09:43Then that's what I mean by experience, not like because I wouldn't say memory,
09:47because I'm not trying to play like memory, you know, or have memories.
09:49I'm just like, no, I've seen this tree before.
09:51Like, I'm gonna try my best to like show you what I've seen, you know.
09:58And then at the same time, like make it alive.
10:00Like you got to make a painting like alive, you know, and it's funny.
10:06It's like actually everything I've ever done in my life kind of like means the painting.
10:11You know, it's like the way I like the way I like stucco things like this, you know,
10:18lay tile, it's like these movements.
10:20It's not, it's like for a purpose, but it's also like, like that's what painting is.
10:25Like, so I'm just blocking in this color because it has a good shape.
10:28And it's like, what, what color goes good with this color?
10:31Well, let's, let's, let's do some tests and science it up.
10:34And then like, you know, you don't know.
10:36And then you just throw something on there and then that turns into something else.
10:39And then, you know, the palette, I have a palette that I've been using now for like six years.
10:45And palette, I just mean like the piece of wood.
10:48And then I mix everything on this piece of wood like this big.
10:52And that's everything I do right is right there.
10:54And I feel like that's the seasoning for my paintings, you know, where it's like,
10:59I just seasoned it all on that palette.
11:01And then with the music and just kind of not judge myself, you know, don't judge yourself.
11:15How do you, you already mentioned how you work with Stefan.
11:19Stefan is quite unconventional.
11:23Yeah.
11:24So, did you have any doubts working with him?
11:29I mean, doubt is a funny thing, you know.
11:34I don't think I had doubts working with him because it's, to me, there's no,
11:39like there's nothing bad that can happen from making art.
11:42I had a friend in Mexico City tell me that, you know, when you live your life with art,
11:46you don't have to be afraid of anything because like the same spirit will take care of you, you know.
11:52So, it's like if I'm here to make art, nothing bad can happen to me.
12:02So, I don't have any doubts.
12:04I think Stefan is, you know, someone who can be controversial.
12:10But I think that's only because he shows more of himself than I think other people are willing to do.
12:17And I feel like that's probably his best marketing tool.
12:22And it's not even like a thought out process, you know.
12:27It's just like I think he's like that, you know.
12:30He's willing to share his opinion and listen to others.
12:34And I feel like that's something that he's always done to me is listen to my side of how I do things.
12:39And, you know, I think that's like coming from two very different backgrounds.
12:43I feel like that's kind of what maybe the world needs a little more of.
12:46It's like maybe you should talk to someone who's not like you a little more, you know.
12:53I mean, what we really like is Hill House.
12:55Yeah.
12:56Because it's not a typical gallery space.
13:00And you feel really at home there.
13:07And we also discussed this, you know.
13:10It's not necessary that you have white walls and a clean room to enjoy art as it is practiced usually.
13:21Yeah, I mean.
13:24And yeah, you see it at the opening now.
13:27People are relaxed.
13:30They like to sit and listen to some music.
13:36And have a look at the paintings.
13:39Yeah, I feel like it's really cool, actually.
13:44Like I go to openings now and have a kid.
13:47It's like if I go to an opening and Ada's with me, it's like if she's not having it, you know, there's nowhere for her to go, sit.
13:56Like it's just these white walls, people talking.
13:59And like you said, you know, the art.
14:03So for me, it's really a breather to kind of have this environment so I can bring my daughter.
14:09And it's like, all right, cool.
14:10It's like, you know, we can find a little corner to kind of hang out and catch a break.
14:18And you don't feel absorbed by someone.
14:24You don't have to take care of how you look, how you behave and stuff like that.
14:29Or if you're standing by yourself, no one's talking to you.
14:31And it's like, oh, what do I do now?
14:33It's like here you can just go look at a tree.
14:35Yeah, there you go.
14:36Or just simply listen to music.
14:38Yeah.
14:39Yeah.
14:40And you have something to do.
14:41I think that's actually kind of interesting.
14:43It's like how we interact with art, where it's like when you try to force that, like I see people looking at a painting this close.
14:52Like, what are you looking for?
14:54Are you looking for the gold in there or what?
14:56And it's like, no, but when you're listening to music and then you're like, wait a minute, I think I just saw something in that painting that I wasn't expecting.
15:05Like, wow, you're going to remember that, you know?
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