Dancing on My Own
Dylan Ng
September 26th - November 2nd

KB is proud to present Dancing On My Own, a solo exhibition by Dylan Ng.

​What does it mean to be alone? How does it feel? What does it look like? These are the questions at the center of Dancing On My Own. Ng explores aloneness in three different environments: community, isolation, and familiarity. Separating being alone from loneliness, Ng brings forth the idea of aloneness, the state through which one moves through life only through oneself. Using this idea, he shows the relationship with ourselves versus those around us, and the dynamics of how we see and are seen by others.

Untitled (Get Lost) and Untitled (Return) show how the individual body becomes submerged by the whole of a group.There is a tension between the nude figuration and the anonymity of the subject. None of the figures are clearly identifiable, and at certain points they disappear entirely. These two works are where Ng’s painterly approach is most present. He uses materiality to emphasize anonymity. Figures disappear into underpaintings and raw canvas and then remerge in thick, heavy impasto. Beneath the expressive brushwork, however, familiarity exists among the subjects. In both works, the figures are intertwined, leaning into and overlapping one another. But this community is set at a distance—intimate within itself but inaccessible to us.

​In Little Red, the subject’s isolation does not offer us access to her identity. Ng references Jane Kinski’s character in Paris, Texas. He draws on familiar visual cues, but the painted figure remains unknowable. She is recognizable, yet her gaze is cast downward. There is no invitation for connection, no shared familiarity between subject and viewer. Ng’s visual language shows this is a painted, imagined figure. The subject dissolves into the background, her form softened by dry brushing and rendered in muted monotones. Her edges blur, and definition fades. She does not emerge from the canvas, but instead recedes into it. Yet, her subjectivity lingers.

​In contrast, Miki presents a subject who is fully present. A friend of Ng’s, he is rendered in fluid, continuous strokes to convey ease and clarity. Their presence forms a strong contrast to the ambiguous figuration in the exhibition. His gaze is steady and relaxed, meeting the viewer directly. Unlike Little Red, where the individual is obscured through muted monotones, Miki is outlined in red. This visually anchors them as the central subject and reinforces their individuality within the composition.

Dancing On My Own invites us to consider what it means to be alone, not as a state of loneliness or absence, but as a nuanced relationship between ourselves and others. Through his exploration of the subject in community, isolation,and familiarity, Ng allows us to look at the spectrum between connection and solitude, and consider how the ebb and flow is central to experience our own singularity.

For all inquries please email kb.bkny@gmail.com