Taha Clayton is based in Brooklyn, NY, born in Houston, TX and raised in Toronto, ON. He is one of 23 artist selected through Art Renewal Center to have his painting in the first ever online auction, Important 21st Century Realism hosted by Sotheby’s in July 2021. Clayton’s work will also be included in the Lunar Codex time capsule and will be sent to the moon expected to launch in early 2022. He most recently showcased with 2020 Vision at South Hampton Art Center, co-curated by David Kratz (NYAA president) and FLAG Art Foundation’s director Stephanie Roach. Clayton’s artistic journey was documented in the award winning 2016 documentary, Heavyweight Paint.

 

The middle child of five, Clayton was raised by a French Canadian Christian mother and an African American Muslim father. He and his siblings struggled to find their normal in times where being Black and Muslim within a small, blue collar, White community was recognizably strange. Upon completing high school, it was only through his peers that he discovered a path in art. Clayton ultimately taught himself to paint outside of academia. Ironically, his aesthetic rebels against the grit of his childhood and artistic training in that, his style adheres more to classical realism. Clayton’s contrasted upbringing has shaped him to create contemporary images of empowerment that address the historical mistruths in Western ideals and ethnic antiquity.