Henry Taylor

At first glance, the figurative canvases that Henry Taylor is mostly known for—of sports figures or street people in his native Los Angeles—seem to possess an almost naive, folk-art quality. But the 53-year-old African-American painter is no outsider: He attended CalArts, though he more or less deflected the school's Conceptualist slant, developing a formula for his paintings that is part Pop Art wry and part Grandma Moses sincere. He's also created installations, made from the detritus found in his neighborhood. This midcareer roundup gives East Coasters a concentrated dose of the artist's unique unadulterated vision.