Kevin Emilio Contreras

Things I Saw From The Precipice is the first solo exhibition of works by Kevin Emilio Contreras, USC Roski MFA ‘27. With the title referencing the spiritual abyss from which his work emerges, this selection of photographic and video works is based upon archival research and excavations into both Angeleno and Peruvian Hauntology, historical systems of magick and occult belief, as well as his own life experiences. Together the works presented form an artistic thesis imbued with cultural specters, the celestial immaterial, and the idea that memory is held within and continues to live on in objects, land, and physical infrastructure.

Kevin Emilio Contreras (b. 1992, Los Angeles) is a queer Peruvian American visual artist, whose practice spans photography, video art, ephemeral collage, and performance. His practice investigates ancestral knowledge, the supernatural, esoteric occultism, and self-discovery in order to transmute and produce bodies of work that reflect on Southern California history, Peruvian Hauntology, intergenerational trauma, and his own life experiences. He is the recipient of the California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (“Emerging” Tier, 2023), has shown work at Da Vinci Gallery (LACC, 2026), and is a featured performer at this year’s edition of CIRCA: Queer Histories Festival presented by the One Institute.