Online Exclusive, Reviews

Kylie Manning

What Remains, What Lingers

Words PLUS MAGAZINE

Photography JAE KIM

What remains when a figure disappears from view? Perhaps it is not the figure itself, but the feeling it leaves behind—a trace of motion, a warmth in the air, a gesture that clings to memory like light on skin. Kylie Manning’s There is something that stays at Pace unfolds as a meditation on what endures within us as moments pass. Her paintings do not offer fixed narratives or definitive forms. Instead, they move in and out of clarity, where bodies surface only to dissolve again into terrain that feels both atmospheric and internal. In this evolving ground, her work resonates, capturing the sensation of something slipping just beyond reach, yet still deeply felt.

The intention behind Manning’s process is woven into the fabric of the show. Working closely with friends from her creative community in New York—writers, dancers, filmmakers—she invited not only their physical presence but their lived energy into the canvas. Their gestures, observed and remembered, become the foundation of each composition, translated into movements that feel tender and elemental. The traces of dance are particularly evident in Manning’s work, recalling her collaboration with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, where subtle shifts in rhythm or breath could carry immense expression. Her brushwork carries that same instinct—sweeping, pulsing, then suddenly still—as though listening as much as painting.

The two-part exhibition, unfolding across 510 West 25th Street (510W) and the third floor of 540 West 25th Street (540W), explores how light and space shape perception. At 510W, sunlight pours through expansive windows, casting dynamic patterns that seem to inhale and exhale the light, infusing monumental triptychs with chromatic richness that pulses with emotion. There is a sense of being drawn inward by the way each composition slowly reveals itself. The canvases are saturated with deep blues, ochres, and violets, colors that do not sit still but ripple and shift across the surface. Figures emerge from the whirlwind of pigment, their contours half-formed, half-dissolving, as if suspended in a moment of change. As viewers move through the airy, sunlit gallery, the paintings seem to breathe, their surfaces shimmering as if alive.

In contrast, the third-floor space at 540W pulls the viewer into a quieter, more focused atmosphere. The pace slows here, guiding attention inward. The small-scale paintings hang suspended, light yet grounded, in a room that feels removed from the rush of time. Rather than commanding attention through size, these works demand a sustained gaze: forms emerge, flicker toward abstraction, and recede again. They hover just beyond recognition, like fading memories slowly taking shape. Together, the two spaces create a harmonious dialogue—between expansive openness and intimate restraint, between bold assertion and delicate suggestion.

This deep engagement with movement extends beyond the figure, informing Manning’s material choices. She sources minerals and natural elements from the regions where she exhibits, creating a tangible link between her paintings and their surrounding environments. In Japan, she incorporated locally sourced pigments—a practice she continues in New York. For this exhibition, her color palette is infused with tourmaline, calcite, and quartz, anchoring the work with geological specificity.

These elements act as physical traces of the land itself, grounding her ethereal compositions with a sense of place. In doing so, Manning reinforces a central tension in her practice: the balance between the fleeting and the grounded, between memory’s fluidity and the permanence of matter.

The exhibition unfolds as a series where form and emotion blur, creating an experience that feels both intimate and elusive. Manning’s figures emerge not as defined individuals but as shifting presences—soft, unsteady, and caught in moments that feel both intimate and distant. They twist, fold, and lean into one another, appearing in fragments as if caught mid-thought, mid-step, mid-becoming. There is a quiet refusal to be pinned down. In this space, identity is no longer a conclusion but an unfolding process, shaped by the people and places we encounter. Manning resists the comfort of clarity, offering something more fleeting—the sense of something felt more than seen. Her work does not offer answers; instead, it invites us to sit within ambiguity, to listen closely, and to feel our way forward. These paintings do not insist on being understood. They linger, like something half-remembered or almost said, rooted not in recognition but in resonance.

As one leaves the exhibition, the impression remains—not as a concrete thought, but as a subtle shift in awareness. Manning’s work doesn’t demand immediate comprehension; instead, it echoes quietly in the background of our thoughts, inviting reflection on what remains when a form vanishes. What stays with us is not always what we understand but what we feel—a delicate aftertaste, a pulse that refuses to fade.

Kylie Manning’s “There is something that stays” is on view at Pace, 510/540 West 25th Street, New York, from March 14 to April 19, 2025.