Kevin Umaña

Umaña’s work utilizes a mathematical approach to modernity, exploring the essential

relationships between form, composition, and color. These concepts are then utilized in

analyzing the concept of experience and perception in the form of time and memory. Subtly

adjusting and reworking these connections, Umaña is able to highlight materiality, space and

point of view.

Inspired by architecture and urban design, Umaña’s paintings are constructed with everyday

materials. Making use of functional elements, Umaña is able to achieve a dialogue between the

tangible and conceptual. His canvases are built up with layers of gouache, acrylic, stucco, sand,

marble dust and fabric paste. From afar, the work appears clean, simple, reductive, but upon

closer inspection, they’re raw, textural and gestural. Umaña relies heavily on painting as an

object. The raw paint is applied laboriously through technical methodologies, from dry brushing

into the canvas’s weave, to complex layering techniques: each application calls attention to the

materiality of each individual component.

Through the use of bold colors, dynamic gestures, and expressive marks. The work proposes a

dialogue between the systematic and the open-ended. The result embracing chance as a tool

for liberating creativity from rational thought. Ultimately setting up the conditions in which my

materials and gestures become somewhat autonomous. Emphasizing a rich use of color, line,

and texture inspired by the musical qualities of painting. The artwork composes of multiple

interlocking patterns, expressing ambiguous figure-ground relationships while echoing the

geometric plan of their three-dimensional setting. Thus, creating fluid relationships between

physical phenomena and intuited symbols.

In addition to process, Umaña’s titles raise the larger ideas at play in his work. Each title pays

homage to a specific location the artist has experience. The work seeks to minimize the

superfluous details of experience to more core values and essentials. The most basic elements

are then synthesized to their purest aesthetics and unique visual language in an attempt to

personify the characteristics of structure and design. Through this process, Umaña is able to

underline the specific memories, senses and emotions of that place and time.