artist statement
The spectacle of an explosion deserves the context of its residue. Fireworks are designed to be consumed in an instant. I reframe them, archiving ephemeral bursts of light through their physical remnants — a ghost of an event. The volatility of the moment amplifies the stillness that follows.
I use small ground fireworks and other combustible materials, working with what’s left—smoke transfer, burn marks, tactile char, cloudy washes of color inscribed through flame. The practice emerged from a childhood fascination with fireworks. A decade of disciplined work with these materials has sharpened this unbroken interest into an artistic craft. The practice spans drawing, installation, video, and performance.
Residue has an aroma—sulfur and char hang in the air. On wood panels, the grain glows through open areas, functioning almost as a light source. A dense, granular buildup sits within atmospheric fields of color, arriving through combustion chemistry. Diffuse metallic smoke transfer contrasts with arcing burn patterns inscribed by spinning fireworks, marks carrying kinetic memory. On black paper, ashy residue appears as light against void, and fireworks burn holes through scorched substrate. Light passing through these irregular holes projects a clean star pattern onto the surrounding walls. What was subtracted from the paper is added to the room.
From a distance, the work reads as a cloudy field of movement, vast and celestial. Up close, the same surface becomes particulate, grainy char, and smoke deposit. The cosmic resemblance is material evidence. The image is the direct trace of a small explosion and the likeness of a massive one. The viewer stands inches from what resembles light-years, and the immense becomes intimate as residue reveals what spectacle alone cannot.
Biography
Kyle Selley (b. 1992, Kansas City, Missouri) is an artist working across drawing, installation, performance, and video. He lives and works in Gainesville, Florida. Selley’s practice centers on residue: what fireworks and combustible materials leave behind, framing the explosive event through its aftermath.
Selley has worked with fireworks since childhood, long before bringing them into a studio practice. Over the past decade, he has developed a working method through controlled ignitions on paper, wood panels, and plexiglass. What's left is the work: smoke transfer, burn marks, char, and holes that throw light across a room when the work is lit.
He holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the University of Florida, where he served as Instructor of Record in sculpture. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Sculpture at the University of North Florida. He founded In-Haus Habitat, an artist-run project space in Gainesville.
Selley has had nine solo exhibitions across the Midwest and Southeast, most recently at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Louis. Recent group exhibitions include the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the LaGrange Art Museum, the University of Montana, and the University of North Alabama. He received Best of Show at the NOMA Gallery International Juried Art Competition in 2026, and his films have been recognized at the Chroma Art Film Festival in Miami and the Avalonia Festival of Short Films in Atlantic Beach. In 2026, he was an artist-in-residence at Kala Yatra in Kathmandu, where he lectured at Kathmandu University, Tribhuvan University, and Sirjana College of Fine Arts. He will be in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in spring 2027.
