In Conversation with Kyle Coniglio

Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery Photo by Greg Evans

 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 couple of years his work was included in solo exhibitions at Richer Heller Gallery (Los Angeles), Louis Buhl Gallery (Detroit), and Taymour Grahne Projects (London), as well as group exhibitions at Jane Lombard Gallery (New York), Nazarian / Curcio (Los Angeles) Thierry Goldberg (NY, NY), and Galerie Yusto/Giner (Madrid). Coniglio lives and works in Jersey City, NJ. 

SANDRO: Your subjects often feel like they could be real people, yet they also carry a sense of abstraction. How do you approach creating them—are they based on specific individuals, or do they serve more as avatars of what could be?


KYLE: Though I often use photo references, they’re really just about proportions/basic anatomy and light/shadow; they’re not at all about the specificity of the model. I think of my work as fictional, so it’s important that my figures feel like they’re in their own world. If it looks like a photo it fails. I’ve been thinking about mannerism lately. Take Pontormo for example- when I really looked at the figures in his constructed scenes I realized that despite how lifelike they feel, people don’t actually look like that. Their uncanny stylization makes them more relatable to me than something engaged with high realism. That realization gave me a lot of permission.

Kyle Coniglio Ghost Lover, 2025 Oil on linen over panel 12 x 9 in 30.5 x 22.9 cm Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Greg Evans

S: There is a striking use of color throughout your work. Could you talk about where your color palette comes from and what informs your choices?


K: There are a few things to talk about here. My generation (and all those after) grew up with screens. These glowing rectangles of color literally emit color as light. I think the impossibly saturated worlds we encounter in animation and video games inform a lot of my contemporaries. So the screen becomes a new kind of painting space, like the window was centuries ago. I think that’s a more subconscious impulse though. I think about how color can add specificity to a narrative, how color can be used as a character itself, as a tool to dramatize. When an idea comes to me its often accompanied by a general sense of the palette and emotional frequency. I love paint because I love color. 


Kyle Coniglio Cast Trio, 2025 Oil on linen 46 x 42 in 116.8 x 106.7 cm Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Greg Evans

S: Your work touches on queer identity, both through community depictions like the Fire Island scenes and through more introspective, personal moments. How do you navigate these dual perspectives in your practice?


K: I feel most in-touch with my queerness when surrounded by other queers- that’s where I feel a part of my younger self that has been craving this specific joy all along. Sexual desire is such a part of queer culture, but it’s also something that can be oddly alienating; there’s often an aggressively objectifying texture to how gay men think about sex. Longing and lonesomeness, wanting to connect- these are part of my queer experience too. 


S: You’ve mentioned in the past that your work has art historical references, particularly with nods to the Old Masters. How do you update these classical references to reflect today’s world and your own personal narrative?


K: When starting new pieces I always rummage through my art history books first. I think of the history of painting as a drag closet that I can pluck from and play with. It’s important that they don’t look antiquated, so color helps with that and so does a certain level of stylization; it’s about adding markers of time in subtle ways with contemporary objects/clothing while still aiming for timelessness.

Kyle Coniglio Weathered, 2025 Oil on panel 30 x 24 in 76.2 x 61 cm Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Greg Evans

S: There seems to be a distinct difference between your painting practice and your drawing practice, both of which are equally powerful. Could you talk about how each of these mediums fulfills a different need for you in your creative process?


K: The paintings are born out of the drawings. There is always a tonal drawing first where I hash out the composition. How developed that drawing becomes is a different matter however- sometimes I work them to the level of the pieces in my current show, other times they stay rough. There are also times where I want an image to exist, but I don’t feel the need to make it into a painting, so drawing fulfills that need.

S: The title of your show, No More I Love You’s, draws from Annie Lennox’s 1995 song. What does the title mean to you in the context of the work, and how does it relate to the themes of intimacy and disconnection explored in the exhibition?



K: It’s such a bizarre phrase to me; it holds a similar texture to Eurythmic’s Here Comes the Rain Again. It describes a condition of lacking- everyone wants to receive “I love you’s.” In addition to a romantic narrative, there are many forms an “I love you” can take- a phone call, good news, comfort, sunshine, an overflowing tip bucket. It speaks to the fraught times we are in as well as parts of my inner world.

Kyle Coniglio Ghost Throuple, 2024 Oil on linen 42 x 37 in 106.7 x 94 cm Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Greg Evans

S: Your work often blends humor with beauty, especially when addressing darker themes. How do you balance these seemingly opposing elements, and what role does humor play in your work?


K: Humor allows me to counter the idealized versions of beauty, especially when it comes to the male physique. It rubs up against beauty in a necessary way, creating space for the imperfect and vulnerable. Self-deprecation comes naturally to me, and a part of me enjoys deprecating my characters. It’s a way to explore deeper themes of identity and vulnerability without making them feel too heavy. 


Kyle Coniglio Movie Night IIIV: Scream Queens, 2025 Oil on linen 40 x 48 in 101.6 x 121.9 cm Courtesy the artist and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Greg Evans

S: In your "movie night" paintings, you reference camp culture and horror movies. What drew you to these genres, and how do you use them to convey deeper, often unsettling narratives within your work?

K: I think about the Move Night paintings as a franchise, which is an intentionally campy idea. The figures in them are both the players and the audience at the same time. As I make more of them, I have the impulse to make them increasingly theatrical, so embracing horror as a genre made sense, plus there are so many great expressions of shock and horror in baroque painting, so I wanted to make a subtle nod to them. I love horror movies and so do many of my queer friends- there’s something about the urge to watch things go horribly wrong that speaks to us. I also want to leave space for the possibility that they’re simply watching the news or a film about my love life. 

 For more information about Kyle’s work please visit his Instagram here. No More I Love You's opened on May 17 and will conclude on June 15, 2025 at the Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles more information about this exhibition can be found here.