Draft:Kyle Yip

Submission declined on 21 May 2026 by ArthurTheGardener (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for music. The draft requires either: evidence that the subject meets any of the specific criteria for music; or multiple published secondary sources that: provide significant coverage: discuss the subject in detail, not just brief mentions or routine announcements; are reliable: from reputable outlets with editorial oversight; are independent: not connected to the subject, such as interviews, press releases, the subject's own website, or sponsored content. Please add references that meet these criteria. If none exist, the subject is not yet suitable for Wikipedia. It is often easier to prove the notability of an album or artist than an individual song or band member. If the subject is not yet notable, consider improving a relevant existing article instead. If you would like to continue working on the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. If you have not resolved the issues listed above, your draft will be declined again and potentially deleted. If you need extra help, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. Please do not remove reviewer comments or this notice until the submission is accepted. Where to get help If you need help editing or submitting your draft, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. These venues are only for help with editing and the submission process, not to get reviews. If you need feedback on your draft, or if the review is taking a lot of time, you can try asking for help on the talk page of a relevant WikiProject. Some WikiProjects are more active than others so a speedy reply is not guaranteed. How to improve a draft Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a basic overview on how to edit Wikipedia. Help:Wikitext – how to use the markup Help:Referencing for beginners – how to include references Wikipedia:Article development – how to develop your article Wikipedia:Writing better articles – how to improve your article Wikipedia:Verifiability – make sure your article includes reliable third-party sources You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Add tags to your draft Editor resources Easy tools: Citation bot (help) | Advanced: Fix bare URLs Declined by ArthurTheGardener 2 months ago. Last edited by Bonadea 13 days ago. Reviewer: Inform author. Resubmit Please note that if the issues are not fixed, the draft will be declined again.

• Comment: The article relies very heavily on primary sources (eg the subject's own website). It needs secondary, independent sources to prove notability. ArthurTheGardener (talk) 18:07, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Kyle Yip
Kyle Yip at the Arte Laguna Prize, Venice (2023)
Born	(1988-07-18) July 18, 1988 (age 38) Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Other name	Discrete
Known for	Artist
Notable work	The Midas Touch, Dream Sculpture A1 (2020), Dream Alarm Clock A1 (2022)
Movement	Hypersurrealism
Website	www.kyleyip.com

Kyle Yip (born 18 July 1988) is a Canadian electronic music producer, conceptual artist, and sound designer whose multidisciplinary practice encompasses visual art, music, and film. He is known for founding the self-coined art movement Hypersurrealism, in which completed works are transcribed from vivid, remembered dreams. His debut album, The Midas Touch (2016), released under the alias Discrete, was nominated for a Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year.^[1] His works have been exhibited internationally at venues such as JanKossen Contemporary (New York), the Gardiner Museum (Toronto), and the CICA Museum (South Korea), and screened at film festivals including NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and Cannes Indie Shorts Awards. Yip was a finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize in 2023 and exhibited in its 2025 edition in Shanghai.^[2]

Yip was born in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1988 to a family of mixed Chinese and white-settler heritage.^[3] At age three, he began experimenting with animation after receiving instructional VHS tapes from Walt Disney Studios, later refining his drafting skills in church basement classes during adolescence.^[4] He attended the Arts York Visual Arts Program at Unionville High School, graduating with both the Arts York Visual Arts Advisory Council Scholarship and the Technological Design Award. He went on to study in the Baccalaureate of Animation program at Sheridan College and later Art and Design at OCAD University, while also taking courses at the Toronto School of Art, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), and Off Centre DJ School.^[5]His first exhibition took place in 2006 at the former home of Group of Seven painter Frederick Varley.^[6]

Yip’s professional career developed alongside his studies, with early public work in electronic music. By 2007 he was releasing work under the name DJ Discrete.^[7] In 2008, his bootleg remix work drew on-air attention on BBC Radio 1 via Kissy Sell Out’s “Killer Remix of the Month” segment.^[8] He subsequently streamlined the moniker to Discrete and, at age 21, released “To All the Killers” (2010) through Brickhouse Records, his first international label release.^[9] He began producing music before taking up DJing, initially experimenting with sampling software and recordings from jazz, classical, and hip-hop broadcasts. He has cited turntablists including DJ Premier, A-Trak, and Mix Master Mike among his early influences before later gravitating toward house and techno music.^[10]

In 2011, Yip founded the independent imprint Savvy Records, later presenting the M E + A P H Y S I C A L event series in Toronto. Yip remained active in Toronto's electronic music community while simultaneously releasing music internationally and developing collaborations with producers associated with labels including Defected Records and Get Physical Music.^[11][12]

He also appeared within Toronto's fashion and arts community, providing DJ performances for Toronto Arts & Fashion Week in 2010, 2013, and 2014–2015 as the event expanded to venues including Daniels Spectrum.^[13] In 2018, Resident Advisor selected Klubnacht as an RA Pick, highlighting Yip's appearance alongside Toronto's underground electronic music community.^[14]

Concurrently, Yip developed a multidisciplinary visual practice he termed Hypersurrealism, transcribing images first conceived in dreams. Early exhibitions included participation in Nuit Blanche Toronto projects at The Red Head Gallery—Insomnia Salon Soirée (2015) and Bright Lights at Night (2016)—that combined installation, image, and performance contexts.^[15][16] His work was later included in the Geoform program at JanKossen Contemporary, New York (2017).^[17]

In 2015, Yip released his debut album The Midas Touch under the name Discrete. The album received a nomination for Electronic Album of the Year at the 2016 Juno Awards.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

From 2019 onward, Yip expanded his electronic music practice into narrative music video and experimental film with In My Room directed by Colin Greenfield. Independent editorial coverage described the work as combining experimental electronic music with psychological and cinematic imagery.^{[23][24][25][26]} The work screened internationally and was shortlisted for Best Cinematography at the Kinsale Shark Awards alongside works by Prince and The Chemical Brothers.^[27]

Yip’s DJ career continued in parallel. In 2020 he launched the monthly radio programme Metaphysical with Discrete on Data Transmission Radio, carrying the Toronto M E + A P H Y S I C A L series into an international broadcast format.^[28] He later appeared as a guest on GDS.FM's Fantastic Friends radio programme in Zürich.^[29]

By 2020, Yip’s Hypersurrealist practice had broadened to large-scale paintings, sculpture, and installation. His Dream Painting series (debut 2019) was followed by object-based works such as Dream Alarm Clock A1 and Dream Mirror A1 (both 2022). Recognition in this period included first prize at the INFINITY exhibition (The Holy Art, London, 2021) and features in RICE Contemporary Art Magazine (Vol. 2), Create! Magazine (Healing From Within special mention), and Al-Tiba9 issues 10–11.^{[30][31][32][33]} In 2022, Yip was invited to participate in the CICA Museum's International Symposium for Visual Culture 2022 in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, where he presented his dream-derived Hypersurrealist practice. His work was subsequently published in Brave New World: New Media Art 2023 by CICA Press and Phaidon Press.^[34][35]

Yip’s interdisciplinary approach—linking music, visual art, design, and film—culminated in a 2023 solo exhibition, RENAISSANCE SHOW, presenting dream-derived painting and object works alongside documentation from his audiovisual projects.^[36]

From 18 April to 12 May 2023, Yip presented RENAISSANCE SHOW at Collision Gallery in Toronto as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.^[37] The exhibition, accompanied by an opening reception on 22 April and a Sound Bath Meditation with The SoundBody Collective on 29 April, was supported by Scotiabank and featured an exhibition essay by Meraj Dhir. It formed part of Yip’s ongoing hypersurrealist practice, integrating eastern and western recovery-based approaches, gnosis, and neuroscience with colour-field strategies and vexillological formats.^[38] Works in the show combined Euclidean and sacred geometry with influences from advertising and serial repetition, exploring how unconscious imagery is shaped by commercial visual culture.

RENAISSANCE SHOW was also presented in the context of the International Symposium for Visual Culture 2022 at the CICA Museum, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and included in the CICA Museum/Phaidon Press publication Brave New World: New Media Art 2023.^[39] Media coverage of the exhibition and its related works appeared in The Globe and Mail, Artsin Square Magazine, Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Magazine, and Saatchi Art’s “100 Artists to Collect Now” feature, among others.^{[40][41][42][43]}

Yip’s first solo exhibition, VEXILLUM, was held at Black Cat Showroom, Toronto, from 21 to 29 March 2019, with an opening reception on 21 March.^[44][45] The exhibition featured multicoloured, puzzle-like paintings composed of positive and negative spaces, drawing from visual sources including advertising, anime, cartoons, and Memphis Design. These works explored the interplay of eastern and western aesthetic values, identity, and boundaries through the symbolic and communicative properties of flags.

The vexillological format, referencing the Latin vexillum (“little sail”), served as a metaphor for cultural signalling and international communication. The series incorporated elements of both ancient and contemporary design, reflecting Yip’s interest in how symbols are used for identification in cross-cultural contexts. VEXILLUM also positioned Yip’s practice within a trajectory that would later expand to large-scale installations, neon works, and sculptural objects in his subsequent exhibitions.

• TMNT (2022–) ^[49]
• DON’T YOU KNOW YOUR ABCS? (2022–) ^[50]
• WASD@? (2021–) ^[51]
• AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (2021–) ^[52]
• RENAISSANCE SHOW (2020–) ^[53]
• FRAGILE (2020–) ^[54]
• 𝓒𝓵𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼, 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓻𝓾𝓮. (2020–) ^[55]
• ONEIRIC MANIFESTATIONS (2019–) ^[56]
• YIN/YANG (2018–2019) ^[57]
• CUTTING THE HABIT (2017–2019) ^[58]
• VEXILLUM (2016–2019) ^[59]
• WATCHING MY MOVES (2010–) ^[60]

Short Films Matter’s Oliver Sandhurst reviewed the video (dir. Colin Greenfield) as follows:

“Colin Greenfield’s direction on Discrete’s music video has brought an eerily beautiful visual experience in five minutes. With Ben Apgar playing the part of a construction surveyor, the video quickly sets up an ambiance of isolation and paranormality… The music composition from Discrete has a compelling beat that meshes well with the unravelling visuals… The cinematography is mind-boggling – elegant and breath-taking at the same time… To sum it up, the collaboration works perfectly, delivering a gratifying experience. From the direction to the music and the cinematography, every aspect comes together fittingly to engross the audience in a bizarre dimension.”^[61]

• Official website
• Spotify
• Instagram
• SoundCloud