Rivero is a trained musician and his time in the studio alternates between visual artmaking and music. In addition to art supplies, his 400-square-foot Bronx studio is packed with a drum set, keyboards, guitars, and various percussion instruments. When he paints, he feels that his hand moves in a system that is more connected to music than to painting in a traditional sense; as one example, all of his paintings start with him “shuffling” paint around on the canvas in a rhythmic fashion that correlates with the music he’s listening to, and the works improvisationally find their narrative or figurative focuses along the way. Rivero’s days in the studio are typically structured around painting (while listening to music) in the morning and playing music in the evening. He cites the hybrid qualities of salsa, hip-hop, house music, jazz, R&B, Afro-Caribbean folk music, 1960s rock, and merengue as core influences in his artistic decision-making.
Kenny Rivero's New Paintings Poetically Explore His "Fear of Death as a Person of Color in America"
Mark Westall, FAD Magazine, 11 December 2020
