Kris Knight is a Canadian painter whose narratives revolve around representation, queerness and intimacy. He is interested in the portrayal of diverse modes of masculinity, transforming various stereotypical traits often used to demean queer men into work that celebrates tenderness, vulnerability and ambiguity.
His romantic paintings and portraits are simultaneously intimate as they are remote; presenting emotional worlds: portals of the artist’s past and present - retreating from the muchness of the world as much as they reflect it. The reflexivity of his narratives is rooted in personal memory but also depict life in the present, where halcyon queer moments have impact without being sensationalized.
The pastel and tonal oil paintings he makes conjure a series of shifting moods, themes and experiences that are connected by a wide range of positions regarding the private and public self. Working from personal images of staged scenes in the studio as well as found imagery and historical references, Knight’s paintings present a quiet, elegant world dominated by sensitivity and subtle melancholy


NEXT EXHIBITION:

GROUP EXHIBITION unputdownable September 8 - October 28th, 2023 MOUNTAINS, Berlin

SOLO EXHIBITION, January, 2024, Spinello Projects, Miami