PRESS RELEASE

Primary is pleased to present The Disappearing Man, a solo exhibition of new works from New York-based artist, Kenny Rivero.

In his first exhibition with Primary, Rivero presents a body of work that touches on the politics of being invisible within social, national, and political contexts as well as in intimate and familial relationships.

"Invisibility or being unseen has always had a stake in the work. Addressing the outside world(s) choice to not see or recognize all the things I am, as well as me being intentional about masking and manipulating a read on my identity.

Whether I internalize ideas regarding my value or actual instances of neglect from others, the motivating factor that informs my decisions to code and veil is not always apparent.

The title "The Disappearing Man," versus something like The Invisible Man, makes more sense with what I am proposing with this work, the balance between being intentional and not. The invisible person tends to lack control over being seen or unseen. While one who disappears may be responding to a threat, but can also navigate their circumstance with some agency."

The work offers viewers a chance to reflect on hope and loss. Through the lens of power, violence, aloneness, intimacy, death, and love, Rivero creates dialogues between a variety of experiences, based both in reality and personal myth-building.

Opens October 17, 2019 at 6 PM

Checklist Press Release

Kenny Rivero (b. 1981, New York; works in New York. MFA Yale 2012, BFA SVA 2006.) Rivero's work, which spans paintings, collage, drawings, and sculpture, explores the complexity of identity through narrative images, language, and symbolism. His aim is to deconstruct the histories and identities he has been raised to understand as absolute and to re-engineer them into new wholes, with new functions. His creative process allows him to explore what he perceives as the broken narrative of Dominican American identity, socio-geographic solidarity, familial expectations, race, and gender roles. Rivero cites the hybrid qualities of salsa, hip-hop, house music, jazz, and merengue-as well as Vodun and Santeria, which were present in his daily life growing up-as core influences on his decision-making in the studio. Kenny Rivero's work is represented in notable public collections including The Baltimore Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; El Museo del Barrio, New York. NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Collection of Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; and Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL.

Primary (Est. 2007) is a context and research-driven curatorial collective with an emphasis on public art. We thrive amongst the self-taught, working-class misfits, who explore the margins of a new Americana through pungent, human-focused narratives. Our program engages with the raw and uncanny, celebrating border voices, bootleg culture, and intergenerational commentary, connecting the new and unseen with broader audiences and evolving collections.

For further information, please contact info@thisisprimary.com