Joseph Kyle Mckinney, is a visual artist from Cincinnati, OH. His figurative paintings, prints, and murals explore identity, history, and the complexities of the human condition. Working mainly in oil, acrylics, and woodcut, his art examines psychological dualities, inherited trauma, and how bodies carry memory and meaning. Through dynamic compositions and bright color, McKinney’s work challenges mainstream visual stories while making space for strength, sensitivity, and growth.

He has gained recognition for his public art in Atlanta, including a mural created with artists from nine countries that honors lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. His mural "The Seeds Were Planted So You Can Dream" earned him a Proclamation from the Atlanta City Council for its role in civil rights education and community involvement.

Mckinney recently completed "Truth and Transformation," a public art piece for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights that highlights the history of forced labor at the Bellwood Quarry and the Chattahoochee Brick Site. The reveal is planned for February 2026. He recently earned his MFA in Painting from Georgia State University, where he now teaches drawing and painting classes. His latest thesis reimagines how the male psyche is portrayed, emphasizing its struggles and inner complexities within both historical and modern contexts. He is currently working on his next exhibition titled: Can’t Depend on Your Eyes if Your Imagination Is Out of Focus," which investigates how meaning is shaped in a world where misinformation, biased narratives, and half-truths often guide what we believe we see. The exhibition unsettles the habits of perception that blur or distort Blackness and challenges viewers to recognize how history, media, and social conditioning influence their sense of truth. Through illusion, symbolic form, and shifts in scale, the work opens a space where imagination becomes an active instrument of clarity. When the mind is allowed to question, reinterpret, and expand, hidden truths emerge, and the visual world becomes more honest, more complex, and more complete.