Kylie Manning’s first solo exhibition in Korea
Growing up roaming the beach with hippie parents
Go on a salmon fishing boat to pay for tuition
500 ton ship navigation certificate
Life on the waves, melt it into your work
Space K“/>
Kylie Manning ‘Sea Change’, 2023, Oil on linen, 243.8 x 375.9 cm provided by Space K
If one person’s life became a painting.
That’s what I think when I look at Kylie Manning’s solo exhibition ‘Yellow Sea‘ held at Space K in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Manning was born to hippie parents in Alaska. They lived a nomadic life, surfing and moving along the endless sea coast. The sea and the people who live there are not clearly distinguished in Manning’s painting. People can be seen between the rising and sinking waves. It seems as if waves are crashing over people, or as if the waves are personified as people. The outlines of the face and body are vaguely revealed between the translucent waves and foam. It’s somewhere between figurative and abstract. He portrayed life in change and flux with unstoppable brushstrokes and delicate colors.
For Manning, the sea was not only the environment in which he grew up, but also his workplace. To earn tuition, I worked on a salmon fishing boat. She was the only woman among the five crew members. He also holds a 500-ton ship navigator’s license. However, after seeing people getting their hands cut or injured by ropes or nets, they quit boat work. I had to keep my hands in order to draw. “It’s no exaggeration to say that I lived on the water,” Manning said. “The sea is connected to all my works,” he says.
Kylie Manning. Provided by Space K
Manning, who is based in Brooklyn, New York, USA, is holding his first solo exhibition in Korea at Space K. The title of the exhibition is ‘Yellow Sea’. Manning was interested in the ebb and flow of large tides in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) of Korea. He felt that the traces left on the beach by the ebb and flow of the tide, which can be up to 9 meters high, were similar to the way he paints. “Like the ebb and flow of the tide, when painting, dyes, oils, and brush marks continue to build up and concentrate on the canvas, creating layers of color. “Through this process, many memories and stories are left behind in my work,” he said.
When viewed from a distance, his paintings resemble powerful waves, but when you get closer, you can see the faint outline of a person. ‘Upheaval’, which is 3.75 meters wide, is a painting that captures the moment when the tide completely turned. Behind the free brush strokes of a variety of colors such as bright blue, deep navy blue, red and purple, a variety of people appear, from people with blurred faces and barely visible outlines to people with clear expressions and postures. The characters in the picture are androgynous. “I thought art history only looked at the body in one way,” Manning said. “I felt that representing female characters as sexual objects was tiring and uninteresting,” he said. “In reality, people are much more diverse and open-minded, so I wanted to portray characters in a way that encompasses a wider range.”
Kylie Manning ‘Muddle’, 2024, Oil on linen, 91.4 × 101.6 cm provided by Space K
Manning focused on Jeju Island and the female divers. In this exhibition, they were interested in Jeju Island’s stone culture and presented ‘muddle’ (mound of stones), which was taken from the Jeju dialect. At Frieze Seoul held last month, they also unveiled ‘Haenyeo’, which was inspired by Jeju Island’s female diver culture. He said, “On Jeju Island, there is a matriarchal society made up of haenyeo who are in their golden years. “It is difficult to see such a special matriarchal society anywhere,” she said. “As one of the few women who work as fishermen, it was really fun to see this kind of scene.”
Among the 20 works that can be seen in the exhibition, the highlight is three large paintings 7 meters long that hang like a veil from the ceiling. Paintings drawn on thin silk are draped in the center of the exhibition hall, allowing viewers to walk, brush, and pass between them. Manning said, “I want you to close your eyes, open your hands, and feel the whisper of silk,” and added, “I want to share the experiences I have had in nature with the audience.” The exhibition, where you can feel the ever-changing expressions and colors of the sea, will be open until November 10th.
A panoramic view of Kylie Manning’s ‘Yellow Sea’ exhibition being held at Space K in Magok-dong, Seoul. Provided by Space K
