Works by Kenny Rivero’s “Ash on Everything” at Charles Moffett in New York. Photo by Zeshan Ahmed, courtesy of Charles Moffett

A continuous interplay between the physical, psychological and spiritual dimensions of reality defines the paintings of American Dominican artist Kenny Rivero. This symbolic layering is especially vivid in the new works featured in his latest exhibition, “Ash on Everything,” on view at Charles Moffett, New York, through January 24. His first New York show in over three years, the presentation reveals a clear evolution in Rivero’s practice—both technically and conceptually. These works reflect a heightened awareness of the universal resonance his subject matter can evoke, alongside a growing confidence in translating his expansive mythopoetic world onto canvas.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

A new material richness matches the densely layered cultural references in these works. Rivero adopts a looser approach to painting, experimenting with varied techniques and incorporating real-world elements. The result is a collage of lived experiences interwoven with internal, psychological and spiritual realms—a complex orchestration that invites a more soulful reading of the world.

About fifteen years ago, Rivero was working almost entirely in collage before shifting to more traditional approaches on canvas. “This time, especially with the notes, I wanted something more real—materials that were older, archival, things I had collected,” he tells Observer. “Objects that had an aura, that carried energy, that had lived in my studio and accumulated stories.”

Yet his approach to oil painting is intensely tactile and physical, with passages where thick paint becomes strikingly plastic—an element unto itself—and others where the artist’s hand is visibly present in direct, gestural marks on the canvas. “I want the painting to feel like it was made by a hand,” he clarifies. “To make that presence undeniable. That’s really important to me.”

His work has long drawn from personal experience, shaped by his upbringing in Washington Heights as the child of Dominican parents and the daily challenges of diasporic life—an experience he has consistently sought to deconstruct and process through painting. In this new body of work, however, Rivero delves even further into the past, transmuting personal memories and traumas into a more universal epic that links the everyday struggles of urban existence to realms beyond the limits of time-bound physical reality.

In these paintings, time collapses—past, present and future blur and coexist, reaching toward something eternal. “It’s not nostalgia. It’s reframing time to reveal something universal about the human condition,” he says. “I’m building a fiction. I’m telling a story, but it’s not necessarily my story.” While his earlier work was deeply autobiographical, this body marks a shift. “It still relates to me in the sense that it draws from my experience of being in New York and being Dominican, but the story takes place outside of me and has nothing to do with my childhood, my personal history, or my family. It’s an entirely new story, one that exists beyond me, and that feels very new for my work.”

As Rivero reveals, it was only in the past few months that he was able to recognize the narrative taking shape across the paintings........

© Observer