26. Tania Rivilis - Conversation with color #30

2024
Pastel, oils, and acrylic on paper
20 x 15 cm
Signed on Front

Tania Rivilis is a contemporary portrait painter whose work pushes the boundaries of traditional portraiture through the influence of digital culture, social media aesthetics and shifting ideas of identity. Combining classical painting techniques with gradients, colour fields and semi-abstract interventions, her paintings explore the complexity and fluidity of human relationships and self-perception.

Central to Rivilis’s practice is the idea that identity is shaped through interaction with others. Her portraits frequently reference an unseen presence beyond the picture plane, suggesting that we are continually viewed, interpreted and defined through external relationships. Through layered textures, painterly movement and emotionally charged colour, she creates portraits that feel psychologically alive, capturing fleeting moments of transformation, intimacy and emotional ambiguity.

Rivilis studied at the Moscow Art and Industry Institute between 2004 and 2010.

Selected exhibitions include Story Tellers at Bonnard Gallery (2020); Grand Opening SOHO, Male of the Species and Five under Five at Arcadia Gallery (2021); Urban Zen curated by Donna Karan and Mashonda Tifrere in New York City (2022); the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries (2022 and 2024); Note to Self curated by Mashonda Tifrere at Christie's (2023); At the Edge of Realism at Kirk Gallery (2023); and exhibitions with Espacio 75 Gallery, Space Gallery and the MEAM – European Museum of Modern Art (2024–2026).

Her awards and distinctions include the Honourable Mention of the Contemporary Award (2021), the William Lock Portrait Prize at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (2022), shortlistings for both the William Lock Portrait Prize and the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (2023), and being shortlisted by the National Portrait Gallery in 2026.