Kyle Dunn, 2020 Photo by Jack Pierson
In his luminous and emotionally complex paintings, Kyle Dunn (b. 1990) depicts scenes of isolation and romantic connection in a modern world where the barrier between public and private life is increasingly porous. The composite figures in his work are often caught in moments of solitude or interior self-reflection, offering at first glance scenes of domestic intimacy. Dueling elements of the theatrical and the mundane complicate the lines separating perception and projection. The emotional tenor of the scenes is heightened by a pervasive liquid eroticism and theatrical lighting, only to be undercut with moments of careful observation and quiet humor. Dunn’s work mines the tension created between this cinematic drama and personal introspection to explore the fraught relationship between artist and subject, between one lover and another, and between individual and society. Dunn lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and received his BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. His work has been included in exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Marlborough Gallery, London, UK; GRIMM, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland; and Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany; among others. His work is in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; the Sunpride Foundation, Kowloon, Hong Kong; and X Museum, Beijing, China. In 2022, his work was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, in Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection. Dunn has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, AnOther Magazine, W Magazine, and Juxtapoz among others. Dunn’s first institutional solo exhibition, Kyle Dunn / MATRIX 194, at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, was on view in Summer 2024. His first solo exhibition with Vielmetter Los Angeles, CA, will open in spring 2025.
Kyle Dunn
b. 1990, Livonia, MI
Lives and works in Queens, NY
Education
2012
BFA Interdisciplinary Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
2011
Option SCIE at La Haute Ecole d'art et de désign de Genève (HEAD), Switzerland
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Kyle Dunn / Matrix 194, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
2023
Night Pictures, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2021
The Fool, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland
2020
Into Open Air, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2018
Always, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY
Night In, Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL
2017
Leaves Don't Thank the Sun, Sardine, Brooklyn, NY
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
The Sphere of Reality and Fantasy – Inheritance and Exploration of the Tangible and the Imagined, Corridor Foundation, Shenzen, China
FULL DISCLOSURE: Selections from the Thomas-Suwall Collection, The Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
2023
SIRANI, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
2022
Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami's Collection, ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Love is the Devil: Studies after Francis Bacon, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2021
Equal Affections, GRIMM Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tidal Motion, P·P·O·W and Joe Sheftel, Provincetown, MA
Body Double, Galerie Maria Bernheim, London, United Kingdom
2019
Do You Love Me?, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Cruise Kidman Kubrick, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland
Body Parts, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich, Switzerland
2018
A Scratch in Time, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY
RE_ARRANGE, Juxtapoz Projects at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
Skins, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Hickey, Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA
Thick on the Ground, two person show with Christian Rogers at NATIONALE, Portland, OR
Interrupting Lines, Pt. 2: Gallery, Oakland, CA
Strange Looks, Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO
Fugue, Honey Ramka, Brooklyn, NY
Public Collections
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Sunpride Foundation, Hong Kong
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT
X Museum, Beijing, China
Awards, Residencies, & Grants
2014
Elizabeth Greenshields Full Grant Recipient, Montreal, Canada
2013
Artist in Residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, hosted by The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Woodstock, NY
Select Bibliography
2023
Judin, Juerg, Pay Matthis Karstens. SIRANI. Galerie Judin, Berlin, 2023.
2021
Oostmeijer, Edwin. Equal Affections. GRIMM Gallery, 2021.
2018
Artforum, PROJECT: KYLE VU-DUNN, November 2018
New Art Examiner
Artmaze Mag, Summer Edition 8, curated by Sara Maria Salamone and Tyler Lafreniere, Founders and Head Curators of Mrs. Gallery, NYC
Strange Plants III, by Zio Baritaux
2017
Strange Fire, November 9th, 2017
The New Yorker, Kyle Vu-Dunn, November 3rd, 2017
Work In Progress Publication, March 2017 issue
Young Space, March 2017
Kyle Dunn
Paper Angel, 2023
acrylic on wood panel
70 x 50 ins.
177.8 x 127 cm
Kyle Dunn
Initiation, 2023
acrylic on wood panel
60 x 48 ins.
152.4 x 121.9 cm
Kyle Dunn
The Hunt, 2022
flashe and acrylic on wood panel
72 x 60 ins.
182.9 x 152.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Coat, 2022
flashe and acrylic on wood panel
60 x 48 ins.
152.4 x 121.9 cm
Kyle Dunn
Match II, 2022
acrylic and flashe on wood panel
20 x 16 ins.
50.8 x 40.6 cm
Kyle Dunn
Homecoming, 2021
acrylic on wooden panel
60 x 48 ins.
152.4 x 121.9 cm
This week in Newly Reviewed, it’s Walker Mimms on Andrew Wyeth, Zoë Hopkins on Truong Cong Tung and Arthur Lubow on Kyle Dunn.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford // June 07, 2024 - September 01, 2024
At the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, the artist’s cinematic tableaux announce his arrival on the mainstage of queer figurative painting.
The Brooklyn-based artist's works are now on view in "Matrix 194" at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Connecticut.
What to show, and how to show it, is being recontextualized by a new generation of creatives
Elephant’s Art Features Editor, Emily Burke, starts her visit at Frieze London
Depicting a series of distinctly after-hours scenarios, every painting in Kyle Dunn’s ‘Night Pictures’ is a testament to the power of sleeplessness to transform the banal into a melodrama and the self into a well of introspection.
Ten paintings. Each engaging; each mysterious; each stranger than the next.
In his newest exhibition showing at the PPOW Gallery, Brooklyn based artist Kyle Dunn captures moments of quiet and sublime intimacy between men.
Kyle Dunn’s Night Pictures offers quiet, intimate scenes that hum with depth.
Kyle Dunn’s new exhibition, Night Pictures, studies a single queer protagonist in their most personal and contemplative moments.
The theme of nocturnal interiors in Kyle Dunn’s solo show “Night Pictures” at PPOW highlights his fascinating handling of light and shadow.
“Trending Now” is a monthly series focused on the artists with a significant growth in followers on Artsy from one month to the next.
When we first sat down with Kyle Dunn in NYC back in 2018, he told us, "Times are changing rapidly, and queer imagery seems to finally be leaving the margins of visual culture."
From Carolee Schneeman at P·P·O·W to Tyler Mitchell at the Gagosian, we share the most unmissable highlights from this year’s fair. New York-based gallery PPOW are offering a rich variety of work made over the last 70 years spanning painting, clay sculpture and tapestry.
In amassing work made by the mostly overlooked gay artists who lived and died during the crisis, a global group of collectors is redefining what the Western canon looks like.
Patrick Sun has made it his personal and professional mission to support LGBTQIA+ artists. As the founder of Sunpride Foundation, he’s led the nonprofit’s efforts to create awareness for the LGBTQIA+ community in Asia through art. One of its biggest projects to date was organizing a pair of institutional exhibitions dedicated to queer themes, titled “Spectrosynthesis,” which took place in Taipei and Bangkok in 2017 and 2019, respectively. And since the 1980s, Sun has been building an impressive collection of works by influential LGBTQIA+ artists such as David Wojnarowicz, Shu Lea Cheang, Sunil Gupta, Wu Tsang, Danh Vō, and Samson Young, among many others. Now a member of the M+ Council for New Art, Sun has carved a place for himself as a major patron of LGBTQIA+ art. Here, he shares insights on his approach to collecting.
As queer art becomes more mainstream, a group of young talents finds itself at the center of a larger cultural conversation.
After a successful solo exhibition at PPOW gallery, the Brooklyn-based artist is gearing up for an exhibition at Galerie Maria Bernheim in Zurich this summer
In conjunction with Kyle Dunn's Into Open Air and Gina Beavers' World War Me, P·P·O·W and Marianne Boesky Gallery presented a digital conversation between Dunn and Beavers moderated by Osman Can Yerebakan.
In the face of economic unknowns, the message from the city’s galleries is: we’re not taking this lying down. Roberta Smith on 16 of the neighborhood’s most riveting painting shows.
How artists, galleries, and art fairs are weathering the storm of the global pandemic.
Art has the unique ability to be therapeutic. The act of creation, problem solving and general solitary thinking allows artists to work through some of the biggest questions about identity, sexuality and ultimately themselves. Manifestation of these deeply personal thoughts and ideas can be incredibly cathartic and expressive. With these tools, artists can tap into parts of themselves that are usually out of reach for others.
