Kenny Rivero received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 and an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2012. Rivero has taught painting, drawing and sculpture at the School of Visual Arts, Montclair State University, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He is the recipient of a Doonesbury Award, the Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Travel Grant, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, and has been awarded a Visiting Scholar position at New York University.

He has exhibited his work in the US and abroad in venues such as the Pera Museum in Turkey, the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands, the Contemporary Art Museum in St Louis, The Pérez Art Museum in Miami, The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling in New York City, El Museo del Barrio in New York City, and the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington Delaware. Residencies include the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program in New York City, the Roswell Artist in Residence Program in New Mexico, The Fountainhead Residency in Miami, The Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture, and The Macedonia Institute. Rivero is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Art.