In New Hat, Kenny Rivero represents a young man wearing an old blue baseball cap while holding a rose, the New York state flower, in his mouth. The painting alludes to the complex feelings that accompany the artist’s multifaceted identity as a Dominican American male. By embracing his love for the Yankees, Rivero strays from the sports teams his father supported. The image serves as a metaphor for the kinds of conflicts that many immigrants and binational subjects experience as they embrace some aspects of their heritage and family history while rejecting others. 
Identification
Title
New Hat
Production Date
2019
Object Number
2019.208
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Acquisition Gift to PAMM 2019
Copyright
© Kenny Rivero 
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Acrylic and Flashe on canvas
Dimensions
72 1/4 x 52 x 2 1/2 inches
Visual Description
New Hat by Kenny Rivero is a painting from 2019. It is made of acrylic and flashe on canvas. It measures six feet tall by four and a half feet wide and is hung in landscape orientation, meaning its shortest side runs parallel to the ground. The majority of the canvas is occupied by the portrait of a person with brown skin. Their face is quarter turned to the viewer’s right. The figure’s right ear is visible as well as bits of hair above the ear. The figure is wearing a blue baseball hat with a dark blue brim. The hat has a dark blue button at the top with stitching colored light blue, green, orange and pink. The figure’s eyes are painted over the hat and are solid white with black pupils. The center of the figure’s face has an irregular shaped section of black paint similar in appearance to a birth mark. The figure holds in between their lips a red rose with turquoise stem. The figure’s shirt has a small collar and is yellow in color. The background is solid grey with a small yellow dot to the left of the figure.
Kenny Rivero
Kenny Rivero — b. 1981, New York; lives in New York
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