Carl Kostyal presents ‘hold my hand while I google symptoms,’ a debut solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Kyler Garrison, opening on 12 December, 2024 at Carl Kostyal London. Garrison’s new body of work presents delicate arrangements of deeply personal items curated for each painting to display a moment in time - both physically and emotionally. Each painting depicts a short story, varied timelines of comfort and nostalgia in the still, solid - the inanimate. Childhood toys left untouched past youth, lamps that cut through winter nights with warmth, a late Grandparent’s piano; a reminder of something bigger than oneself.

The act of googling symptoms is a reaction of an anxious impulse, grasping for a sense of control. This act is violent, pure, and inherently self sabotaging, offering no real solutions except for the hope of peace of mind and comfort, but it almost always makes things more worrisome. These paintings intend to highlight this poignant process and never-ending cycle of the search for comfort, stability, and new experiences in a worrisome and ever-changing world.

A lesser version of itself; melancholic hopefulness

Action and reaction, or lack thereof – a self- inflicted result of isolation”

“Perhaps she might have discovered something new and important. It was even possible that they were looking for roughly the same thing - the dark, the wild, the shy, and the lost security of being little. She couldn’t know.” 

- An excerpt from Tove Jansson’s ‘The Wolf’ as a part of her collection ‘The Woman Who Borrowed Memories’

Preview: Thursday 12 December 2024, 6-8pm

Carl Kostyal London, 12a Savile Row, W1S 3PQ

Exhibition: 13 December 2024 - 10 January 2025

Exhibition Photography by Benjamin Westoby