Wylie has become known for her uniquely recognisable, colourful, and exuberant compositions that appear aesthetically candid, not seeming to align with any discernible style or movement, but on closer inspection are revealed to be wittily observed and subtly sophisticated meditations on the nature of visual representation itself. The artist has long been interested in exploring perspectival and compositional strategies other than—and along with—traditional Renaissance perspective, frequently making numerous iterations of a given motif as a means of advancing her formal investigation. Working in both single- and multipanel formats, she regularly juxtaposes apparently disparate imagery, creating visual rhymes and resonances that coalesce into a unified composition. As curator Tanja Boon aptly notes, ‘[Wylie’s] paintings exemplify the artist’s ability to absorb powerful impressions from her immediate surroundings. They also illustrate her broad knowledge of cultural production, spanning popular and cliche styles as well as underexamined and non-Western visual traditions.’

The compositions presented in When Found becomes Given explore the fluid line between the moment when a work of art is discovered and the stage in which it is established as canonical. Recent paintings like Lilith and Gucci Boy (2024) combine ancient stories with contemporary references. In folklore, Adam’s ‘first wife’ Lilith was created at the same time and from the same clay as her spouse. Here, Wylie inscribes the first feminist across the two panels of the diptych, honouring the mythological figure’s refusal to submit to Adam. She replaces him with a fresh avatar—a model wearing a suit from a Gucci advertisement. In an accompanying study on paper, Wylie articulates her source of inspiration: Lilith’s form is based on an Old Babylonian terracotta plaque that she first observed in the British Museum’s collection.

Similarly, in Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream (2023), the artist takes as her subject the legendary Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar II and the biblical narrative describing his dream of a monumental man composed in four sections of gold, bronze, iron, and, for his feet, clay—an allegory that has been interpreted numerous times throughout the history of art. In her characteristic style, Wylie uses a strong contrasting palette that variously evokes the work of El Greco, Édouard Manet, and Matthias Grünewald. Other compositions demonstrate a more associative approach to colour choice. In Opera Singer & Teapot (2024), the pastel colours of the singer’s chiffon scarf, rendered as speckles around her neck, are taken from popular fabric designs from the time that Lily Pons, a French American soprano, was active. The white teapot she faces is an established fixture in Wylie’s home, bridging the past and present.

In her paintings, Wylie traverses personal and public histories as well as dreamscapes that encompass her pictorial world. Based on an earlier watercolor, A Dream (2024) confronts the viewer with the layered brick floor of the artist’s home. Wylie depicts herself as she experienced the dream: as an abstracted black stick figure dutifully scrubbing the floor. In the diptych Dinner Outside (2024), she illustrates on the left panel the arrival of guests and cars parked in front of the host’s home; on the right, she shows the scene after forty-five minutes, the sky growing dusky and a dinner table set for a party. Within the composition, she introduces a dot motif—a pictographic representation of the pebbles atop which the cars are parked—and connects these to the widely used shorthand for green blades of grass that punctuate both panels and signify the outdoors.

Wylie sees Dinner Outside as a kind of schema: ‘The painting reminds me of a map, or a report from a seventeenth-century discovery ship, where the resident-artist has recorded the transport, habits, homes, and dress of some newly found “peoples” ... only here, it’s now, and I am the “people”.’ 2 Also on view are a selection of older paintings that chart the development of Wylie’s recurring images and compositional style. The titular character of Yellow Henry (1996) is Henry IV, who reigned as King of England from 1399 to 1413, and is also the subject of a four-volume biography by the artist’s grandfather, the historian James Hamilton Wylie (1844–1914), who wrote a three-volume biography of Henry V as well. Here, she paints the facial profile of Henry IV in the center, his head outlined in green; this portrayal has appeared in other works, incorporated as a kind of mark of intergenerational Wylie history.