Kyle Dunn’s luminous paintings dramatize themes of intimacy and alienation. In alluring domestic scenes, men perform everyday rituals against the backdrop of the big city, whose glow shines through the windows of their small apartments. Some of his composite figures sit in quiet contemplation, while others are seemingly caught during romantic encounters. Spatially ambiguous settings collapse interior and exterior worlds—both physical and psychological—inviting us to question the boundaries between public and private, individual and collective. Dunn’s distinctive style blends elements of surrealism and modernist figuration with nods to popular culture and cinema; moments of still life and trompe l’oeil puncture the narrative melodramas, lending subtle humor and a feeling of timelessness to the work.
Marking the artist’s first institutional exhibition, Kyle Dunn / MATRIX 194 includes a selection of work from 2022–2023 alongside new paintings made for and in response to the Wadsworth Atheneum.