Kylie Manning is a painter, surfer, and fisher based in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were both art teachers, and, while she was growing up, the family moved between their home in Juneau, Alaska, to various regions in Mexico, which would inform her artwork—and her surfing. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts with a double major in philosophy and visual arts. While she was getting her MFA at the New York Academy of Art, she had a captain’s license to operate 500-ton commercial fishing boats on international waters, and spent her summers catching salmon on the Pacific coast. Manning has gained global respect for her abstract figurative paintings, which embody powerful yet delicate compositions with brushstrokes that seem to be in motion. Her work is held in numerous collections worldwide, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida; and the X and Yuz Museums in China.

In this episode of Soundings, Manning talks with Jamie Brisick about weather and wonderment, beauty and brawls aboard commercial fishing vessels, atmospheric fascination, style, her proudest artworks, the nuances between grit and growth, and her collaboration with the New York City Ballet.