I've been painting for many years in a narrative representational style. Years ago I realized that I have a language well suited to commenting on contemporary political and environmental issues. In addition to these themes, I'm drawn to all manner of interesting and relevant ideas and subjects from history, mythology, and our world at large.
Born in Manhattan, I grew up in my father's Greenwich Village Painting studio. I earned a B.F.A. in Painting from Syracuse University (1977), then travelled and studied in Florence and London. Moving to Charlotte, N.C. in 1980, I showed for 14 years with Center of the Earth Gallery in NODA, Charlotte's original arts district.
Included in New American Painting Vol.22 in 1999, I was selected as a Resident Artist at the McColl Center for Visual Art in 2000. In 2002 I showed 16 paintings in 'Invisible Cities' at Davidson College. My ‘Tower of Babel’ was published in 'Great World Writers' (Marshall Cavendish, 2004). I was Included in the N.C. Artist's Exhibition (Raleigh, N.C.) in 2016, and selected for 3 'Truth to Power' Juried shows at Durham, N.C.'s Pleiades Gallery (2017, 2018, and 2019). In 2019 'Interrogation' was chosen for 'Open 30', an International Juried Exhibition at Laredo College in Laredo, Texas. In 2021 'Shipwrecks' was selected for 'Best of the East Coast' at 311 Gallery in Raleigh, N.C. In 2022, 2 paintings were selected for "Tell It Slant', a Nationally juried show of 'Political Art With Wit' at the Cade Gallery in Arnold, MD. ‘Looming Apocalypse’ was accepted into ‘War & Peace’, a 2024 International Group Exhibition, and ‘Painting Today’, a 2025 Site:Brooklyn online exhibition, included my ‘Forest of Suicides’. Also in 2025, the online art news site Hyperallergic included my studio in their ‘View From the Easel’ feature, and New Orleans gallery Smith Contemporary included a drawing in their Exhibition ‘Circe’.
I'm married to sculptor/painter Rebecca Jones. We have a daughter, Alexandria Tao, a fine jazz pianist, and are now living in New Orleans, La.