Kenny Rivero
Night Baller with the Pink Laces, 2016
About:
He is an artist who works across mediums, including painting, drawing, and sculpture, to explore his personal narrative and the convoluted histories of New York City and the Dominican Republic. Sponsored by the Art Department.
Artist Statement:
“As I work through a variety of media, primarily painting, drawing, and sculpture, I often begin by contemplating the convoluted histories of New York City and the Dominican Republic. Along with the occasional reference to popular narratives and accepted notions of history, the content of my work pulls from anecdotes from my own family and the collective memory developed by the people living in these two places.
I eat vegetables, sometimes, 2016.
Ultimately, my aim is to deconstruct the histories and identities I have been conditioned to understand as absolute, in order to reengineer these parts into new wholes, with new functions. This process allows me to creatively explore, and come to terms with, the broken narrative of Dominican American identity, socio-geographic solidarity, familial expectations, race, and gender roles. As a result, I tend to consider the products of my practice syncretic in nature.”
Artist Bio:
Kenny Rivero was born and raised in Washington Heights, New York City. He received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 and an MFA from the Yale University School of Art in 2012.
Rivero has been a guest lecturer at El Museo del Barrio, Williams College, and the School of Visual Arts and a guest critic at The Cooper Union, The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and New York University. He is the recipient of a Doonesbury Award, Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Travel Grant, Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, and has been awarded a Visiting Scholar position at New York University.
Jealous Cat, 2016.
So what you are sayín?, 2016.
Panther Man, Pantherman, pantherman, 2016.
He has exhibited his work in the US and abroad in venues such as the Pera Museum in Turkey, the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands, the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art in Detroit, and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Residencies include the the, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program in New York City, the Roswell Artist in Residence Program, and The Fountainhead Residency in Miami, FL (forthcoming).
Rivero currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and is a Museum Educator at the Metropolitian Museum of Art and an Adjunct Professor in the Visual and Critical Studies department at the School of Visual Arts.