NADA New YORK
Kyla Kegler
May 13-17, 2026
Kyla Kegler, NADA New York, Booth E17, New York, NY, 2026
Booth
Location:
The Starrett-Lehigh Building
601 W 26th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10001
Enter on 11th Avenue
Between 26th St. & 27th St.
VIP and Press Preview:
Wednesday, May 13, 10:00am–4:00pm
Public Hours:
Wednesday, May 13, 4:00–7:00pm
Thursday, May 14, 11:00am–7:00pm
Friday, May 15, 11:00am–7:00pm
Saturday, May 16, 11:00am–7:00pm
Sunday, May 17, 11:00am–5:00pm
For NADA New York 2026, Rivalry Projects will feature works by Buffalo-based artist Kyla Kegler. The presentation includes new paintings and sculpture drawn from Kegler's evolving relationship to utopia and the pursuit of pleasure.
“The earthy terracottas, the velvety blue water and sky colors, the slate stone colors, and the almost-invisible-on-raw-canvas fleshy neutrals are sensuous and soothing—I want to drink them in, smell, touch, and be enveloped by them. The drips of gold, neon, and glitter, and the whispers of pastel are little winks, a reminder of the absurd within the reveling. And the stains of shellac and oil, the defacement with crayon and chalk are signs of life.”
Raised within the Waldorf education system, Kegler experienced a youth that encouraged imaginative outdoor play, engagement with raw materials, seasonal rhythm, and a reverence for nature. Yet, as is common, she recalls childhood fantasies shaped not by organic materials but by mythic objects she wasn’t allowed to own—Barbies, My Little Pony, and other tools of capitalistic media. This lack of access produced a desire for an imagined paradise where mainstream imagery promised safety, satisfaction, and belonging. As an adult, this quest for utopia has subverted, shifting toward a yearning for ecological interdependence, embodied community, and ingenuity.
The paintings embody these desires, positioning world-building as a fantasy that persists and evolves from childhood into adulthood. Kegler utilizes the grid as an organizational structure, freeing her to focus on relationships between material, color, texture, and mark. Finding the grid’s sharp right angles pleasureless, she regards the armature as a container to decorate and disobey. She utilizes interference paint, gouache, beeswax crayon, shellac, chalk, and pastel, along with textural materials like coarse pumice, to create layered surfaces that shift with light and the viewer’s proximity. This intentional shift in perspective is anchored by the Jungian idea that meaning is not immediate but accumulates over time, revealing itself when the psyche is ready to integrate it into their understanding of self.
The paintings are complimented by a menagerie of hand-built vessels, candlesticks, and pegasi, varying in color, glaze, and scale. These works appear askew, distorting symmetry into sensual, protruding forms that interrupt order with something more bodily and unruly. The vessels hold space for emptiness, while the candlesticks become light-keepers, even in the absence of a flame. The accompanying fleet of modeled Pegasi forms what she terms the Pegaverse—a mythic utopia that abandons failed societal systems for the manageability of her own creations.
The presentation is held in tandem with Kegler's first solo exhibition at the gallery The Last Whole Earth. The exhibition at the gallery will be on view through June 19, 2026
SELECT WORKS
INSTALLATION VIEWS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kyla Kegler (b.1985) explores themes of fantasy, relationship, pleasure, and purpose through painting, sculpture, performance, and film. Her films and performances often choreograph groups engaged in tasks that blend emotional and physical labor.
Kegler’s practice is informed by her work with Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont) and her role as co-founder of the underground theater Zuhause (Berlin). She holds an MA in Solo/Dance/Authorship from the Art University of Berlin and an MFA in Studio Art from the University at Buffalo.
Her past projects include Feel Me, a multi-modal investigation of the mindfulness industry exhibited at Box Gallery, Canisius College, and Big Orbit; The House on Fire Show, a teen web-drama about the climate crisis screened at the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art; Mountains, a puppet soap opera performed at Artpark, Torn Space Theater, and Undercurrent Gallery (Brooklyn); The Frontier, a performance about cults and community; and R.d.f.t.c. (Relationships don’t finish, they change), an installation of video and sculpture exhibited at the Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, NY (2024).
Her current project, The Accumulation of Meaning Over Time (All Parts Sold Separately), funded by the UB Humanities Communities of Care Grant, includes a film, ceramic objects, and paintings. It explores early life influences—such as Mattel toy commercials—on world-building as utopian fantasy and a strategy for control amid unmanageable chaos.