Kyle Dunn

Vielmetter Los Angeles is thrilled to present Devil in the Daytime, the gallery's first solo exhibition featuring new works by New York-based painter Kyle Dunn. This marks Dunn's debut solo exhibition in Los Angeles and will be on view from February 8 through March 29, 2025. 

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.

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.