Location:
Clayton Staples Gallery
McKnight Art Center West, Room 205
School of Art, Design and Creative Industries

Metals for Mirrors | Miguel Rivera
On view January 25–March 5, 2027

Clayton Staples Gallery hours:
Monday–Friday | 8 a.m.–5 p.m.

Exhibition-related events
Artist Talk | Thursday, February 25 | 4–5 p.m.
McKnight Art Center West, Room 210
WSU School of Art, Design and Creative Industries

Meet-the-Artist Reception | Thursday, February 25 | 5–6 p.m.
McKnight Art Center West, Clayton Staples Gallery, second floor

Workshop | Wednesday, February 24 | 1:30–4:30 p.m.
McKnight Art Center North, Room 221
Pre-registration required. Contact Marco Hernandez for details.

About the artist’s work
Miguel Rivera’s work explores memory, migration, and cultural identity through layered compositions that combine photography, drawing, digital imagery, and laser-engraving processes. Drawing inspiration from nautical maps used during the Spanish conquest, Mexican architecture, and his experiences living between Mexico and the United States, Rivera creates visual landscapes that trace personal and collective histories.

His works evolve through the accumulation and removal of imagery, using laser and CNC technologies to alter and transform photographs and vector drawings. These layered interventions serve as metaphors for adaptation, displacement, and the ways experiences are remembered, reshaped, or forgotten over time. Referencing historical narratives of exploration, exchange, and migration, Rivera’s work examines the invisible forces that connect people, places, and cultures while reflecting on the complexities of belonging in an adopted environment.

About the artist
Miguel Rivera is an artist and educator who has served as chair of the Kansas City Art Institute printmaking department since 2008. Prior to joining KCAI, he was chair of the art department at the University of Guanajuato.

Rivera holds a Master of Fine Arts from West Virginia University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Oregon University. In addition to co-directing the international collaborative projects Identity Play and Crossover, he has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally.

His artwork is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.

Exhibition and events are free and open to all.