Kevin Umaña’s recent works, “hybrid paintings,” combine glazed ceramics on painted canvas and fuse together conflicting styles—mess and order, biomorphic and geometric, thin and thick, matte and sheen. These abstract representations evoke specific places from his childhood, memories of nature, beaches, plants, construction materials, food and religion.
Kevin Umaña is the co-founder of The Ekru Project, an artist-run Kansas City gallery focused on contemporary, emerging, and underrepresented artists. In 2017, he created a permanent installation at The United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Residencies include The Center for Book Arts, New York City; Plop Residency, London, England; and SIM Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland. His work was featured in “Pattern Recognition,” curated by Amy Lincoln at Sperone Westwater in 2022.
