Kylie Manning

스페이스K 서울, 카일리 매닝 전시전경, 2024

On view from August 9 to November 10, Space K Seoul is pleased to present a solo exhibition of works by Brooklyn-based artist Kylie Manning. This extensive exhibition features 20 works, including oil paintings on linen and an installation of painted veils measuring 7m wide, created specifically for Space K’s unique spatial qualities. Amongst the paintings, ambiguous figures in vast natural landscapes emerge from moments of clarity and abstraction. Titled ‘Yellow Sea,’ Manning draws inspiration from the unique tidal phenomena that occur in the body of water dividing China and the Korean Peninsula and meditates on ‘what is distilled after a tide removes excess debris, noise, and marks.’

스페이스K 서울, 카일리 매닝 전시전경, 2024

Three installments of vast painted silk veils cascade through the center of the exhibition space. Creating a stage-like effect, the veils evoke a feeling of walking through trees or large-scale sea vessels. Images of crashing waves are divided like film strips as colors convey the passing of time, recalling a landscape from the viewer’s memories. The audience can navigate through the fluttering silk scrims as if they are the protagonists in the work, allowing them to step deep into Manning’s artistic world. “The goal is to bring a sense of being both amidst and a part of nature inside a museum space to soften a traditional objectification of paintings and offer a more ethereal experience. It creates a conversation between painting, installation, and sculpture, prioritizing the viewer’s perspective and breaking down the separation between the viewer and artwork.”

항구 Harbor, 2024, Oil on linen, 203.2 × 243.8 cm`      

Manning uses the unique tidal properties of the Yellow Sea as a metaphor for the push and pull of figuration and abstraction in her painting. The Yellow Sea has a clear color boundary in its waters due to the influx of freshwater silt; yet, because the difference between high and low tides can measure up to 9m, the color boundary constantly shifts. The artist likens this tidal action to the abstract elements of quick brushstrokes and pours threatening the narrative of the figuration. These instances suspend viewers in a fluid state of precarious and delicate moments.

우리 곁에 남은 것과 멀어지는 것 What stays with us and what falls behind, 2022, Oil on linen, 203.2 × 299.7 cm

The Nature of Nature, 2024, Manning’s largest painting to date, is a triptych with three varied screens. A landscape of figures layered between vigorous brushstrokes dynamically transforms into a unified whole. The contrast between dense mark making and sparse washes is rhythmically placed. In Mudle, 2024, the distinction between the bronze and blue colors resembles the winter landscape of Jeju Island. The artist explored the geographical environment and culture of Jeju, which borders the Yellow Sea. Her warm and cool pigments are inspired by the mineral compositions of native stones. ‘Mudle’, written in Jeju dialect, refers to a pile of stones collected from plowing a field. In Sea Change, 2023, Manning captures the moment when the tide completely turns. It also implies a massive wave of social change. In the fluid building of a massive wave, the figures are portrayed in a calm lyricism, resolute in the potential for change amidst turmoil.

머들(돌무더기) Mudle, 2024, Oil on linen, 91.4 × 101.6 cm

Manning fills the exhibition space with colorful seascapes and ripples of figures. She investigates the universal language of the ocean, intimately familiar from a lifetime along coasts, whilst simultaneously singular on the Korean peninsula. The sea and nature, human beings and existence, float and subside somewhere in her work. The artist’s meditation on this push and pull invites us to consider what is distilled in our memories and what is revealed. This exhibition will be an exciting opportunity to immerse visitors in the majestic seascapes alchemized by Kylie Manning.

격변 Sea Change, 2023, Oil on linen, 243.8 x 375.9 cm

Born in Alaska, Kylie Manning studied Philosophy and Visual Arts at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and earned her master’s degree from the New York Academy of Art. Manning is currently based in Brooklyn, where she continues to work internationally. She has held solo exhibitions at X Museum, China (2023) and Jaime Sabines Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico (2015) and took part in a group exhibition at Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA (2023). Her work is held in numerous collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and Yuz Museum, China.

자연의 자연 The Nature of Nature, 2024, Oil on linen, 243.8 x 609.6 cm

With her incredible talent, Kylie Manning depicts the sea and various figures in her unique approach to abstraction. Raised by parents who were art teachers, Manning grew up between the coasts of Alaska and Mexico. She also worked in commercial fishing to pay for school and held a maritime captain’s license to operate 500-ton vessels, embedding her relationship to the sea as a major theme in her practice. While pursuing her master’s degree, she attended the Spinnerei in Leipzig, Germany, where she was influenced by the New Leipzig School. During her time, she became fluent in a technique employed by Dutch Baroque painters: the artist builds up layers of thin paint, refracting light through the oils in each layer to create a self-luminous effect. The result is a lush harmony of radiant textures and delicate colors

Figures appear in specific postures or movements in the artist’s painting that imply masculinity and femininity while maintaining gender ambiguity. Manning explains, ‘by withholding the gender distinction of the figures, she eliminates limitations on interpretations.’ She also emphasizes the relationship between human beings and nature, saying that ‘we are incorporated into and completed by our surroundings, in the mountains and trees.’

SpaceK Seoul
32, Magokjungang 8-ro, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Korea
+82 02 3665 8918

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