Kyle Dunn
Kyle Dunn
Boy on Table, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
48 x 40 x 2.5 ins.
121.9 x 101.6 x 5.1 cm
P·P·O·W is pleased to present Into Open Air, an exhibition of new work by Kyle Dunn. Defying categorical restraint, Dunn combines sculptural and painterly traditions, including bas-relief and trompe l’oeil, to express the vibrancy of the masculine emotional landscape not often represented in popular visual culture. Drawing upon a range of influences such as Italian cinema as well as horror and science fiction novels, Dunn’s contorted figures ache with emotional and physical desire. In his first solo exhibition with the gallery, Dunn amplifies raw emotion within his theatrically staged and fantastically rendered reliefs.
Capturing the simultaneous anxiety and nascent hope of our present moment, Dunn’s lush, luminous, and physiologically charged paintings describe the painful romance of overcoming loss before beginning anew. In works such as Boy on Table, Dunn depicts his classical figure in a moment of manic confinement, hovering in a virtual landscape and folded acrobatically around a modern marble table. Intertwining auto-biographical and fictional narratives, Dunn embraces the comedic absurdity of overwhelming emotions in this exhibition. Reflecting on his proclivity for melodrama, Dunn notes, “There is a kind of humor and silliness to big emotions, at least when you are looking back and processing. Making paintings is a way for me to distill messy situations in my life down to something understandable.” From the frenzied captivity of Headlights to the muddy repose of Dirt God, Into Open Air chronicles the chaotic journey through grief toward new emotional terrain.
Kyle Dunn (b. 1990) lives and works in Queens, NY. He grew up in Michigan and received his BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He has had two solo exhibitions in New York at Sardine, 2017 and Thierry Goldberg Gallery, 2018 and has been included in group exhibitions at at Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich; Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA; Nationale, Portland, OR; Part 2 Gallery; Oakland, CA; and Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.
Kyle Dunn
Bolt, 2020
acrylic on illustration board
30 x 20 ins. (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
framed: 33 x 23 x 1.75 ins. (83.82 x 58.42 x 4.45 cm)
Kyle Dunn
Window, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
48 x 54 x 2.5 ins.
162.6 x 137.2 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Headlights, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
47 x 42 x 2.5 ins.
119.4 x 106.7 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
False Start, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
56 x 37 x 2.5 ins.
142.2 x 94 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Carless Driver, 2020
acrylic on wooden panel
40 x 30 x 1.5 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm
Kyle Dunn
Fiddler, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
48 x 60 x 2.5 ins.
121.9 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Coyote, 2020
acrylic on wood panel
40 x 30 x 1.5 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm
Kyle Dunn
Like something flying, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
48.5 x 56 x 2.5 ins.
123.2 x 142.2 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Reading, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
64 x 48 x 2.5 ins.
162.6 x 121.9 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Going Down, 2020
acrylic and spray paint on epoxy resin and foam panel
54 x 37 x 2.5 ins.
137.2 x 94 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Dirt God, 2020
acrylic on epoxy resin and foam panel
43 x 64 x 2.5 ins.
109.2 x 162.6 x 6.4 cm
Kyle Dunn
Waiting, 2020
acrylic on wood panel
40 x 30 x 1.5 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm
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.
