Kevin Umaña was born in 1989 and grew up in El Salvador and Los Angeles. He received a BFA from San Francisco State University in 2014 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Umaña’s early practice focused on geometric paintings and has since expanded to include ceramics. His recent work investigates the history of the Pipil people—the Indigenous group of his family ancestry—native to the western and central areas of present-day El Salvador. 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.

In 2017, Umaña created a permanent installation at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. He has completed residencies at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation (2024); Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program (2023-24); Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT (2023); The Center for Book Arts, New York (2019); Plop Residency, London, England (2018); and SIM Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland (2018). He is a recipient of the 2024 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Webster University, St. Louis (2023); White Columns (2024); Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse (2024); Grimm Gallery (2024); Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York (2025); and Sun Valley Museum of Art (2025). His work is in public and private collections including The United Nations Art Collection, New York; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Munson Museum of Art, Utica, NY; Fidelity Mutual Funds Collection; Center for Book Arts Library, New York; and The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA.

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