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Kylie Manning is a Brooklyn based painter dealing with the tradition of gesture as filtered through the lens of contemporary German painting. An abstract figurative painter, her canvasses reveal a hybrid of influences pertaining to being born in Alaska and raised half in Mexico. Compositions investigate disintegrated, dystopian landscapes that vibrate between refined and wild. With an acute focus towards light and brushwork, Manning examines macabre figuration that toys with traditionally gendered “masterpieces”. Brushing upon a version of surrealist academia due to working and exhibiting in the Spinnerei alongside the New Leipzig School, Manning incorporates a contemporary feminist sense of humor and queer dialogue. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College Summa Cum Laude with a double Major in Philosophy and Visual Arts, with a Masters from the New York Academy of Art. Recent exhibitions include Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York, NY; The Whitney Museum, New York, NY; Spring/Break Art Show, Los Angeles, CA; Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA; AOAP, London, UK; THAN, Sotheby’s, New York, NY; NGORONGORO II, Berlin, Germany; Sabines Museum of Contemporary Art, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico; ART-KARLSRUHE, Karlsruhe, Germany; St-Art Fair, Paris, France; Scope Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland; and the Spinnerei Rundgang, Leipzig, Germany.
“Currently I’ve felt an odd polar shift
between gratitude and disappointment.”
Hello Kylie! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. Talk to me about your current feelings and emotions…Currently I’ve felt an odd polar shift between gratitude and disappointment. Gratitude for the amazing art community I’ve been inspired by this year and disappointment with the obvious political evils.
Tell me about your early life, and your journey to where you are at present. I was raised between Alaska and Mexico by art teachers. They spent their entire life fighting for arts education so the apple didn’t fall so far from the tree. The only real shift, is that I used to have to supplement my artistic career by returning home to commercial fish every summer. It formed the way I relate to space and liquid.
Do you feel completely free to create work that you desire? In a world that makes woman feel less than at every turn, it is impossible to even imagine how great our work could be if we were not minimized daily. I think constantly unlocking our own limitations that have been placed on us since childhood is a part of women’s work that requires unrelenting diligence. Every time we come across a barrier we have to recognize how much we absorb it into our ID. I worked hard to carve out a lifestyle that prioritizes my studio practice, and hope to value that time striving to make the work that I desire.
What has been a pivotal moment(s) in your career? Jonas Burgert curated my work into an important exhibition in Berlin, one of my large works was given a massive wall and was viewed as a part of an important conversation with many of my painting heroes. It was the exhibition of a lifetime in many ways.
What’s your favorite part of the process? The first round on a new piece.
What’s your preferred medium, and why? Oil, it’s the sexiest.
What emotions do you aim to evoke when people experience your work? Sometimes, when I’m lucky, people take a deep breath and sigh when they see my work. A few times they’ve even stopped in their tracks. Not from being stunned, more by an unexpected connection or fusion. It is a pretty awesome feeling to stand back and watch someone unexpectedly stop, breath it in, and develop an emotional bridge to the work. I prioritize capturing a specific time of day so that the viewer can remember being in a similar space, this hopefully allows for unexpected mark making so that the pieces convey a mood rather than a specific story. Sometimes this is successful at allowing a viewer to connect with the work initially – over time I hope for the work to blossom for the viewer.
What can we expect from Kylie Manning in 2021 and beyond? I have an upcoming exhibition with Anonymous Gallery in May, I can’t even being to express how excited I am to share this new body of work in their beautiful space.
Tell me about your latest project EX FILES…. As with all of my curatorial efforts, EX – FILES was a community building effort. I had seen artist’s donate over and over this year and wanted to make something fun and interesting for artist’s in return. The exhibition formed around how we’ve recently been viewing art: rather than attempting to recreate the white cube in a viewing room to eliminate outside context, I had hoped to mobilize our surrounding context as a pathway to and from the artwork. Simply put, we curated IG stories to add insight and humor towards works of art that carefully construct fiction. This online exhibition staged a series of images, thereby layering stories to ultimately assist the works of art, not detract from them. Of course this is no substitution for seeing work in real life, but it allowed so many people who don’t usually feel comfortable interpreting images a fun pathway towards the work’s content. It took a great deal of time and effort from Janet Hicks and Jamie Simone along with the amazing artists who took part. The more interaction between each artist and Jamie (who choreographed corresponding memes and images to underscore each art work’s inherent mood) the deeper the viewer’s perceptual vantage point was – so that different strata within the works were brought to the surface.
Who’s your biggest influence, and why? My family, because they are kind.
Do you have a daily routine? I am in the studio Monday – Friday. Usually 2-10pm.
What rules do you live by? Work hard, don’t be an asshole.
How do you get into your creative flow? By working. For me it’s all about momentum, if I am working all the time the “flow” happens more frequently and potently, only then does the work become interesting.
Talk to me about feeling ‘stuck’ – Although breaks are important for orientation, whenever I take a break I know it will cost me about a week of bad work in the studio; there is no way around it but through it. A lot of people can paint, but painting well is almost impossible. Sometime a piece happens easily, but usually feeling “stuck” is a part of most pieces, and sometimes a piece is better for the friction or fission born out of that moment.
Talk to me about the enjoyment of ‘switching off’ and enjoying nature – Nature is basically medicine for me. Having been raised in Alaska I get really cracked out by the city and have to physically remove myself every now and again to keep my head screwed on straight. Usually surfing or running in the woods helps expand my mind best. Salt water washes away the angst and foliage soothes. As for social media, it’s such a double edged sword. It’s easy to hate for an obvious shallowness, but it has done some much for leveling the playing field in the arts. For my studio time, I have to distance and minimize a certain quantity of any input for my output to actually be creative.
“Work hard, don’t be
an asshole.”
What do you foresee for the future for the creative industries? I have no idea, but hopefully less focus on old, white, lecherous males.
When was your first major commission? I had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chiapas. This was particularly important because I was able to affiliate the University of Tuxtla Gutierrez and create and teach in their art department during the months of preparation. It created an integral sense of community to the work and a life-long bond with many of the students and faculty that were instrumental to the integrity of the exhibition.
What advice can you offer other artists regarding making their practice profitable? I don’t know about profitable but if asked about valuable, I would say start curating. It allows you to create contexts rather than have one placed around you randomly. The sooner you can create conversations and genuinely build a family of artists who practice reciprocity the better off your personal work and practice will be.
What’s the most interesting fact that you discovered recently? Sunsets on mars are blue. (As the atmosphere is akin but sort of opposite to ours – the sky from Mars appears pink, rather than our blue sky, and the sunsets are blue, where as ours our pink). Obviously this is the title of my upcoming exhibition 😉
What advice would you give to your younger self? Cherish every moment with the people you love because you will wake up one day and they will be gone without notice.
Tell me about your biggest failure, and what you learned from that failure? Wasting too much time on people that were toxic. I learned there is barely enough time for the people I adore, don’t bother with the rest.
What does success look like for you? Taking care of a family solely from my art practice.
What do you want to be known for? Quality.
Recommendations – I really love Ninth Street Women. I know everyone read it two years ago but it’s still soooooooo good.
