Kyle Coniglio (b. 1988, Wayne, NJ) has his MFA in painting from Yale University and a BFA from Montclair State University. He has been a fellow of the Queer Art Mentorship program in New York and an affiliated fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Over the past year his work was included in exhibitions at Taymour Grahne Projects (London), Nazarian / Curcio (Los Angeles) Thierry Goldberg (NY, NY), and Galerie Yusto/Giner (Madrid). He was recently featured in New American Paintings (#158) and interviewed on the Talk Art podcast. In May of 2022 Coniglio had a solo show at Taymour Grahne Projects in London followed by his recent 2023 solo show at Louis Buhl in Detroit. Coniglio lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.
How have relationships influenced your artwork?
Relationships with fellow artists are extremely important. I am fortunate to have had a great group of classmates in graduate school at Yale; many of us landed in NYC after school so we had a little community that has since expanded in a really rewarding way. I am especially close with Doron Langberg who is one of my go-to painter friends when I need feedback on something that I’m wrestling with in the studio. Our dialogue with one another has been ongoing for 14 years now and it has made both of us better painters.
I have also had several mentors who have been generous with their time and advice over the years. I would not be where I am today without any of the above-mentioned people.
Can you speak to your choice to paint with a limited color palette?
Color is a huge part of what drives my practice – I could mix colors all day and never get bored. I’m interested in its ability to conjure atmosphere, time of day, mood, and even the sublime. I think of color as a character within each painting. For example, in my painting, Sprawl, which was in my last solo show, orange – the warmest color on the color wheel – and yellow hues are used to invoke a sensation of literal heat. I wanted to create a sense of oppressively bright sunshine to situate the figure in. A space that was so unescapably hot that he had to lie down and take a break from plein-air painting.
What is your creative process in producing work?
My process consists of several steps – a lot happens before I even touch the canvas. I start by making many quick drawings to start exploring poses, spaces, and composition. I then make a large-scale drawing where I put it all together. Next, I photograph the drawing and colorize it in Procreate. I like using my iPad to make color studies because it allows me to explore different options much faster than actual paint would. This whole part of the process feels like I’m solving a puzzle. Finally, when I get something that works I start the actual painting, which I make via many layers of oil paint. It’s a long process.
Who do you have the most respect for in the art world?
The critic Dave Hickey is legendary to me. I love his writing and would share it with my students when I was in academia. His essays have been expansive for me and so many other artists. He never compromised what he had to say, even if it sometimes closed doors for him. It’s sad he’s no longer with us – I always dreamed of him seeing my work one day.
I clearly have an affinity for Lisa Yuskavage. Lisa is very transparent about her journey to get to where she is today. She didn’t become successful until many years after finishing at Yale and she even kept a lot of her rejection letters. When she discusses these early years in lectures or interviews she often mentions her mental state at the time and how important therapy was to her – I wish more artists advocated for mental health this way. In addition to her tenacity, Lisa has digested the history of Western painting and squirted it back out in such an intriguing yet timeless way. She is one of the poster children for a generation of painters who breathed new life into figuration by rummaging through hundreds of years of European painting for ingredients and putting them into a blender to create their own painting languages which they use to respond to contemporary concerns. This way of thinking defines post-modern painting to me.
Is there an institutional collection that would be meaningful for you to be in?
Many painter friends of mine are up at the ICA Miami, so that would be a cool place for all of our work to be in conversation together.
Describe what an ideal public or private space would look like for your artwork to reside in.
Well, one thing I’ve seen recently is museums putting contemporary paintings next to historical ones. An example is what the Frick did a couple of years ago when they had some works out on loan. Instead of leaving a blank space on the wall, they let a contemporary painting hang in its place. Seeing a work made in present-day surrounded by paintings 200+ years older than it helps expand how contemporary painting is understood. So I would love to have a work hung in a context like that. I’m thinking the Musée d’Orsay sounds nice…
Which artists would you like to be in a group show with in the future?
Tough to not give you a page of just names, but Dana Schutz, Hilary Harkness, Rose Nestler, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya to name a few.
Which part of the art ecosystem excites you the most for the future of your practice?
This year I’m participating in several fairs, which excites me because so many people get to see the work in person. The color of my paintings rarely translates in photographs so it’s important for my work to be seen in person.
Kyle Coniglio’s group show, Echoes of Paradise, at Jane Lombard Gallery in New York City curated by Alejandro Jassan opens on June 28th. He is also in a group show, Interior Worlds, with Taymour Grahne Projects this month.
