Sam Umbral (b. 1990, St. Louis, Missouri) lives and works in Kansas City. Through portraiture and a multidisciplinary practice, Umbral investigates identity and gender alongside systemic issues including the War on Drugs, homelessness, and incarceration. Grounded in lived experience and social critique, their work foregrounds the human cost of addiction and situates painting and image-making as tools for empathy, resistance, and advocacy.

Umbral’s exhibitions include Globalized Painting at Galerie Rothamel, Erfurt, Germany (2014); Mobile Uploads at Lyons Wier Gallery, New York City; and KIDS at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (2012). In 2017, they received the Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artist Award and the Byron Cohen Award. Umbral holds a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the City College of New York.

 

 

2017 CSF Award Exhibition, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS

2017 She-Bop, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)

2015 F, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO (details)

2014 GP, Galerie Rothamel, Frankfurt, DEU

2013 Mobile Uploads, Lyons Weir Gallery, New York, NY

2012 Kids, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS

2010 New Message, Bill Brady ATM Gallery, New York, NY

2009 I Want To Be You, KCAI Crossroads, Kansas City, MO

2023 Decade, Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO

2017 REALLY?, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2016 The Liminal and the Limitless, 50/50 Gallery, Kansas City, MO

2014 Painters, Gallery 26, Little Rock, AR

2013 (LyonsWeir) Art Southampton, Long Island, NY

2013 (LyonsWeir) Art Basel, Miami, FL

2013 Retuning Reality, Lyons Weir Gallery, New York, NY

2012 Double Dirty Dozen, Freight + Volume Gallery, New York, NY

2012 Dexterity, Lyons Weir Gallery, New York, NY

2011 Three Painters, Myrtle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2011 Works on Paper, Tompkins Projects West, Los Angeles, CA

 

2017 Charlotte Street Foundation’s Visual Arts Award