Kyle Dunn
Kyle Dunn
Eight-Petalled Rose, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
56 x 45 ins.
142.2 x 114.3 cm
Kyle Dunn’s paintings of detailed interiors explore intimacy and estrangement, often portraying male figures in scenes of quiet contemplation or languid eroticism. Constructed around a cinematic interplay of light and shadow, Dunn’s art carries a touch of melodrama.
Dunn’s work blends modernist, surreal, and classical styles in figurative painting, featuring elements of still life and trompe l’œil. Inspired by the visual logic of cinema, his paintings explore the tension between psychic space and reality, merging imagination with real relationships, and blurring the lines between home and studio, as well as art and life, embodying the concept of simulacrum.
Kyle Dunn
Devil In The Daytime, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
56 x 45 ins.
142.2 x 114.3 cm
The title “Devil in the Daytime,” which is also known as the Noonday Demon, stems from Biblical times, and is a monastic term that blames workday restlessness on the supernatural. Dunn saw parallels between this idea and the experience of painting in his studio, of working in isolation while also resisting the pressure to always be productive. The term “daytime” refers to the seemingly endless routine activities—such as running errands, chores, grocery shopping—that occupy our lives. By day’s end, we often seek an escape from further obligations or the monotony of daily life, humorously depicted by the disappeared protagonist and his dropped shopping bags in the exhibition’s eponymous work, Devil in the Daytime.
The exhibition highlights themes related to the concept of “daytime,” including Summer, Midday, Siesta, and Begonias. The paintings on view elicit the feelings and qualities of light associated with late afternoon when the sun can be particularly oppressive. In Begonias, the ennui of this time of day is vividly palpable. Elsewhere in Midday, a nude figure stretches like a cat in the sun atop a table, surrounded by scattered books and papers.
Dunn’s emotionally nuanced paintings carefully balance diligent focus with the sensuality of daydreaming. They reveal the constantly shifting line between imagination and reality. However, these compositions are ultimately intended to be open-ended, enabling viewers to interpret them in their own myriad ways.
Kyle Dunn (b. 1990) 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.
Kyle Dunn
Begonias, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
45 x 56 ins.
114.3 x 142.2 cm
Kyle Dunn
Still Life with Garlic and Money, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
30 x 24 ins.
76.2 x 61 cm
Kyle Dunn
Siesta, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
55 x 67 ins.
139.7 x 170.2 cm
Kyle Dunn
Midday, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
70 x 50 ins.
177.8 x 127 cm
Kyle Dunn
Understair, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
60 x 72 ins.
152.4 x 182.9 cm
Kyle Dunn
Summer, 2024
acrylic on wood panel
56 x 45 ins.
142.2 x 114.3 cm
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
Devil in the Daytime (Installation View) Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, February 8 – March 29, 2025. Photo: Brica Cox.
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