08/26/2025
Join us for our upcoming exhibition featuring artist Leo Esquivel!
Spirit in the Fire by Leo Esquivel
Sept. 4th – Oct. 13th
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 4th, 5-7 PM at the UMKC Gallery of Art.
The UMKC Gallery of Art is proud to present Spirit in the Fire, a dynamic exhibition of recent works by Leo Esquivel. Showcasing his latest explorations in sculpture, digital art, and Mardi Gras ephemera, this exhibition invites viewers into a vibrant, multifaceted world of cultural symbolism and material experimentation.
Esquivel’s most recent sculptural works “The Existential Icebergs” push the boundaries of common construction materials. Those materials that compose the eggshell surface of our gallery walls, drywall mud and primer. He transforms these common materials into dreamlike, fantastical entities that blur the line between the natural and the imagined.
The exhibition also celebrates Esquivel’s deep connection to Kansas City’s Mardi Gras traditions, featuring an array of Krewe artifacts: ornate masks, elaborate hats, and three-dimensional banners, each brimming with color, pageantry, and cultural resonance. Complementing these physical works are a series of digitally rendered characters—born from his mask-making practice—that evoke themes of cultural assimilation, transformation, and the forging of new mythologies.
Leo Esquivel was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He earned his BFA in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1995 and was a co-curator of the Dirt Gallery in the late 1990s. In 2003, he received the prestigious Charlotte Street Foundation Award. For the past two decades, Esquivel has built a career as a professional decorative painter based in Kansas City, all the while continuing to expand his artistic vision.
