YPC event | Studio Talk: Honor Titus with Penske Projects

Honor Titus (b. 1989, Brooklyn, NY) is an American artist who lives and works in L.A. Titus is a self-taught painter whose work is deeply influenced by his creative past as a musician and poet. Before moving to California in 2016 he assisted in the studio of artist Raymond Pettibon, who attended his poetry readings in New York. Painted in a range of dark, luminous jewel tones, his work often depicts faceless figures in minimal urban landscapes, reflecting the sense of isolation and loneliness that results from a condition of anonymity in the urban environment. Suffused with a sense of romance, Titus’s paintings are embedded with nostalgic references to a simpler time: a boy in baseball gear, a 1950s car painted cherry-red, a man with a bouquet of flowers in an old suit and fedora. Titus’s simplified compositions and bold, flat patches of color are inspired by Les Nabis, which included French painters such as Maurice Denis and Felix Valloton. In their bold immediacy and emphasis on flat, decorative patterns, Titus’s surfaces echo the style of graphic hyperrealism practiced by artists inspired by American advertising, such as Alex Katz. Titus’s first solo exhibition premiered at Henry Taylor Gallery, Los Angeles in 2020. Previously, he curated and was featured in a group exhibition at Sade Gallery (2019) in addition to a two-person show at Penske Projects (2019). Recently, his work was featured in the group exhibition (Nothing But) Flowers at Karma, New York.