FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2026
Kylin O’Brien, Art Under the Bridge
A Retrospective Exhibition Tracing 18 Years of Art-Making and Creative Community in DUMBO, at Baci Studio
The artist will also launch a new book about her decades-long practice and host a “Local Legends” panel celebrating the neighborhood’s creative legacy and future
Kylin O’Brien, Tantra Study 6, 2014, acrylic, latex, oil, metallics on canvas, 60 x 48 in
Brooklyn, NY – BACI STUDIO presents Kylin O’Brien, Art Under the Bridge, a retrospective exhibition of paintings and interactive mixed media works. During the exhibition, the artist will also launch her new book Kylin O’Brien, Art Under the Bridge: 18 Years of Creativity in Community. The exhibition is on view October 29 – December 3, 2026, at Baci Studio, with an opening reception on Thursday, October 29th, and panel discussion on Thursday, November 12th.
A multidisciplinary artist whose career has encompassed painting, installation, performance, and interactive public art, Kylin O’Brien has exhibited internationally and created projects throughout New York and beyond. Her work has intersected with institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tibet House, DUMBO Arts Center, A.I.R. Gallery, Art in General, and the European Cultural Centre during the 59th Venice Biennale.
Kylin O’Brien, Art Under the Bridge features several paintings which are emblematic of O’Brien’s larger practice of creating work that is explicitly and mindfully imbued with metaphysical intention. The selection of paintings in this exhibition will span over a decade of work, and are among the last fine art objects she intends to create. Best known for interactive public works, alongside these paintings O’Brien will be exhibiting The Giant Get Well Card for Humanity, that visitors can sign, and complimentary “prescriptions” from the artist’s Placebo Pharmacy.
During the exhibition, O’Brien will launch her new book Kylin O’Brien, Art Under the Bridge: 18 Years of Creativity in Community, created with the support of John Gagné of Gagné Contemporary. Part retrospective, part love letter, the book traces nearly two decades of the artist’s paintings, installations, performances, public artworks, collaborations, and community projects.
O’Brien has lived and worked in DUMBO for nearly two decades in a former industrial loft originally carved from raw factory space by legendary conceptual artist and architect Vito Acconci. Below it, bands including Blue Öyster Cult and Sonic Youth once rehearsed. DUMBO’s creative history carries unusual gravitas. Artists, musicians, performers, designers, writers, experimental spaces, and independent cultural organizations transformed a former manufacturing district beneath the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges into one of New York’s most recognizable creative neighborhoods. Many of the people who built that culture are still here.
On November 12th, O’Brien will host “Local Legends: A Night of Creative Legacy Honoring DUMBO’s Past and Embracing Its Future,” a panel conversation featuring longtime pillars of the neighborhood’s creative community, including Jan Bell, Tanya Rynd, Kriss Roebling, and Craig Anthony Miller (C.A.M.), with musical guests Jan and the Maybelles. Rather than looking to the creative history of the neighborhood as a relic, “Local Legends” brings generations together to ask: What becomes possible when a new creative generation knows whose shoulders it is standing on? The panel and event will celebrate DUMBO’s past, examine its present, and imagine its creative future, while recognizing artists and culture-makers whose decades of work helped make that future possible.
DETAILS
On view
October 29 – December 3, 2026
Opening Reception
Thursday, October 29th
6 – 9 pm
RSVP HERE
Local Legends Panel
Thursday, November 12th
7 – 9 pm
Baci Studio
55 Anchorage Pl
Brooklyn, NY 11201
ABOUT KYLIN O’BRIEN
Kylin O’Brien is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist. She holds degrees in Philosophy from Vassar College, in Tibetan Studies from the School for International Training, and in Art and Design from Leeds in the UK, where she was awarded a part-time lectureship while pursuing her studies. She has participated in international exhibitions and has had numerous solo exhibitions, most notably in New York City with the legendary Hudson of FEATURE INC. She has collaborated with artists and organizations on performances and events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the European Cultural Centre, the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, and the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. Kylin has also created commissioned public works for community organizations during Art Basel Miami and as part of a large-scale nationwide public works project, creating murals in Wynwood, Miami; Oakland, California; and Brooklyn, New York. A true multi-passionate, Kylin and her work have been seen, featured, and mentioned for a variety of reasons in publications including Brooklyn Magazine, Art in America, Artsy, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, NPR, BoingBoing, Gothamist, and Flavorwire. Kylin is not only a multidisciplinary artist and visionary author, but also a clairvoyant, a success mentor to high performers, a black belt in full-contact karate, the creator of New Feng Shui, and a Reiki energy healer.