MFA Alum Kyla Kegler published in Cornelia Issue 18

Utopia vs. the Apocalypse in a Post-Market Art Economy  [intro/excerpt]

"In today’s global artscape, two dominant narratives persist: one of nostalgic utopian hope and another of hedonistic existential collapse. These aesthetics and their implications, though distinct, sometimes overlap and are broadly felt. As artists confront escalating eco-political terror, they can either imagine radical futures of autonomy, sustainability, and communal care or expose the unconscionable dystopia unfolding. This trend isn’t new. Art has always oscillated between beauty and war, heaven and hell, fetish and critique, sublimity and despondency, melancholia and jubilation. However, the urgency of the present moment translated through post-internet and other contemporary aesthetics feels more spiritually vacant than ever, and this age-old duality has recently piqued my interest as a timely paradox. Artist and author James Bridle calls the current era of art the “new Dark Age,” defined by a nostalgic longing for devirtualization and a return to traditional mediums."

Read the full article here: https://corneliamagazine.com/article-set/utopia-vs-the-apocalypse

Kyla has also appeared in the following Cornelia Magazine issues:

2022, Issue 9

• "Kyla Kegler’s Mountains", Review by Nando Avarez-Perez

2020, Issue 4

• "Won’t You Be My Zoom Neighbor", Review by Evan Moritz

2020, Issue 5

• "Vulnerability in the Club", Interviewing Artist Ryan Huff

Bio from Cornelia Issue 18

Kyla Kegler is an artist whose practice explores themes of longing, relationship, pleasure, and purpose, often engaging groups in experimental collaboration. Kegler is the founder and director of Agatha’s, a performance space in Buffalo.

Her work is influenced by past collaborations with Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont) and co-founding the underground Berlin theater “Zuhause” (2010). 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 current project, Care-Core (All Parts Sold Separately), supported by the UB Humanities Communities of Care Grant and a Squeaky Wheel workspace residency, explores utopian models and fantasies of care through world-building. It draws on childhood notions of utopia, referencing the way toys were marketed to kids in 1990s television commercials—where care, joy, and ideal worlds were promised in miniature individual components, sold separately.

More about Kyla:

https://www.kylakegler.com/