On a singular canvas the world is framed as Kyle Parker Cunningham sees it today, as it was yesterday, and as it could be tomorrow, merging archaic images with the technologies of the future. Each piece is unique and poignant: paying homage to our prehistory while forcing us to examine how far we have come.
Every painting, print or sculpture captures a piece of Kyle’s speculative autobiography. A hyperreal self portrait captures the artist at a precise moment in time. Animals with solarpunk breathing apparatus envision a potential near future in our uncertain world. Abstract works ignite memories anciently encoded into all our DNA. A vague old mixing bowl recalls the lineage of grandmothers who brought us here. In the repetition of the random is found the building blocks of our psyches; each painting is real and resonates with familiarity.
Individual works are situated together forming dense matrices of interconnected stories. Cunningham’s installations mimic ubiquitous computer interfaces chock full of multilayered information streams which in turn mirror the overlapping and intertwined drawings found in caves the world over. Every viewer interprets this disparity of imagery through their own life recognizing deep resonance in one painting, in others indifference, revulsion or confusion. The combination of these emotions inspire understanding of the work on a personal level and an invitation to examine themselves in the collected imagery. Kyle reminds us that though the day is long we are each but a piece of this being known as existence: complex and sublime.
Concise Statement
Kyle situates much of his art in a speculative future, where flora and fauna of nature don the technology of man in order to survive a future “climate changed” environment. These ideas focus attention back to our human situation. A butterfly carrying a sledge hammer is no less bizarre than sending a Tesla Roadster to Mars. Through being jolted into the absurd, the viewer is afforded a new perspective from which to interpret their entire existence.