Everything Is Connected

Taylor Renee Aldridge: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

Light Work Season 5 Episode 87

On this episode I’m joined by Taylor Renee Aldridge. 

Taylor Renee Aldridge is a writer and curator based in Detroit, Michigan. In 2014, with writer Jessica Lynne, she co-founded ARTS.BLACK, an online journal of art criticism from Black perspectives. In Fall 2024, she assumed the role of Executive Director at the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation

In the episode we discuss her return to her native Detroit, the importance of ancestral practice, why there’s a lack of art criticism today, and what she’s excited about for the future. 

Taylor has edited and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs, including Enunciated Life (CAAM, 2021) and Mario Moore | Enshrined: Presence + Preservation (Charles H. Wright Museum, 2021).  Her writing has appeared in Artforum, The Art Newspaper, Art21, ARTNews, CanadianArt, Contemporary&, Detroit Metro Times and SFMOMA’s Open Space. She has organized exhibitions with the California African American Museum (CAAM), Detroit Institute of Arts, and Cranbrook Art Museum, including the critically acclaimed Simone Leigh (2024, CAAM & LACMA). Taylor is the recipient of the 2016 Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short Form Writing and the 2019 Rabkin Foundation Award for Art Journalism. She holds an MLA from Harvard University with a concentration in Museum Studies and a BA from Howard University with a concentration in Art History.

 Image Credit:  Bella Lopez
Contributing Audio Credit: Alan Mckinney