Artist Statement

My art is a reflection of life; it encompasses concepts and processes that provide a connection between the visible and invisible. I create visual narratives that integrate political and social issues, women’s vulnerability, confusion, contradictions, and my personal experience of nomadic life, which can resonate with millions. I work across media, fluidly engaging with sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, textiles, and ceramics, working with passion, exploring materials and processes, and incorporating life experiences and acquired knowledge. While experimenting, I feel free to connect the spiritual and physical, to past and present, fears and love, allowing the mystery of life to reveal itself.

Biography

Maria J. Riviere, an Argentinian Canadian artist, from Buenos Aires is based in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. In Argentina she worked as a primary school teacher; in the late 1970s when political unrest put her safety at risk, she relocated first to Spain and later settled in Canada.

In Ottawa she pursued a career in computer programming, and after retiring from her professional activities, Riviere rekindled her passion for visual art, exploring a variety of experimental forms to express her creativity. She moved to Lethbridge and decided to deepen her art knowledge in a university setting. In 2023, she graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Studio, earning Great Distinction and completing an Honour Thesis.

Riviere works across media, fluidly engaging sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and textiles, exploring the intersection of the visible and invisible.

She is a two-time recipient of the Roloff Beny Photographic Award in Fine Arts, she has also received the Excellence in Art Studio Award, MEDALTA Ceramic Residency for art students, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Abbondanza Fine Arts award, The University of Lethbridge Scholarships and several other awards.

Riviere exhibited in solo, and group shows across Argentina and Canada from 2021 to 2025.Her works The Dancers and Struggle appeared at Casa Gallery, Lethbridge, Alberta (2021, 2023), The Penny Gallery, The University of Lethbridge exhibited History Shadows / New Visions works (2023). Night Impressions, photography, paintings and poems at the Escuela de Educación Estética, Buenos Aires (2023). In 2025, she showed first Visual Journey work and later Catching Memories project at Casa Gallery; Trap\Door Artist Run Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta displayed her works in two exhibitions, Be There and be Square, Interlacing Stories, and Thinking Inside the Box. She participated in the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery’s summer exhibit (2025) featuring Brain and perception changes. In 2022. Currently she is working on a project that will be exhibited in June 2023. Riviere completed a mural commissioned by Green Acres Foundation for their 60th anniversary in Lethbridge in 2022

Riviere is a member of Canada Council for the Arts, Elephant Artist Relief Society, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Golden Key International Honour Society, Trap \ Door Artist Run Centre, Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge and National Museum of Women in the Arts.