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.

Kyle 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.