NEW YORK, NY.- Miles McEnery Gallery is presenting Intervals, California-based artist Kevin Appel’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition is on view 19 February through 28 March 2026 at 515 West 22nd Street. Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated publication featuring an essay by Bridget R. Cooks.

In Intervals, Appel presents a body of work that marks a measured yet decisive evolution in his practice. Where earlier paintings were characterized by dense patterning and compressed surfaces, these new works open into expansive fields of calibrated color and line, allowing breath, rhythm, and pause to take on greater significance. The artist reflects, “The work is shifting, and right now it feels crucial that I don’t have an end result in mind… it’s been more about being present and disciplined in the process.”

Central to this change is Appel’s use of liquid pigment dispersions, adjusted with varying binders to control density, opacity, and how color settles and holds light. The material remains active only briefly, making timing an integral component of the process. Before the surface dries, Appel unsettles it through wiping, spraying, lifting, and allowing gravity to intervene. As Appel explains, “The material demands a kind of responsiveness. It pushes back, it misbehaves. That unpredictability is what gives the surface its life.”

Warm and cool tonalities move in delicate counterpoint, strengthening the compositions’ sense of levity and openness. As Bridget R. Cooks observes, “Appel’s affective color palette ranges from reserved pastels to jewel tones. The color combinations, selected with intention, create distinct moods and encourage communion.” She further notes, “The forms appear to move from left to right, and the viewer reads them like writing.” Together, these works invite sustained looking, their layered surfaces revealing a quiet choreography of time, gesture, and perception that underscores Appel’s continued inquiry into the possibilities of geometric abstraction.

Kevin Appel (b. 1967 in Los Angeles, CA) received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in New York. He is a Professor of Art and currently serves as Art Department Chair at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine.

Appel has been the subject of solo exhibitions at ACME, Los Angeles, CA; Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico;The Suburban, Chicago, IL; Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; and Wilkinson Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

His work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous institutions including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Kunstmuseum Brandts, Odense, Denmark; Museum of Contemporary Art Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, among others.

Appel’s work is held in the public collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The New York Public Library, New York, NY; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and the Saatchi Collection, London, United Kingdom.

The artist lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.