Maria Rivans’ eye-popping collages explore the idea of existing alternate realities and fantastical other worlds which transport us into a surreal and exciting universe. By appropriating an array of sourced vintage ephemera, Maria seeks to overwhelm us with her compositions by combining vivid and seductive colours with powerful and often humorous imagery.

 

Best known for her intricate surreal landscapes, pin-up portraits and 3D boxed works, the viewer often experiences a visual and sensory overload from the hundreds of carefully cut-out found elements culled from her huge collection of vintage paraphernalia.

 

Influenced by the extraordinary colours of Hitchcock films shown in Technicolor and sci-fi TV shows such as Land of the Giants and Planet of the Apes, these heroes from the past have been altered by combining and blending other found imagery scavenged from different eras, thus inviting the viewer into her strange and peculiar world.

 

Rivans’ collages have a firm running theme of vintage Hollywood films, B Movies and TV trash. The screenplays of vintage films such as, The Birds, Mildred Pierce and Tarzan, have been rewritten and reinvented, resulting in newly collaged screen plots which intertwine throughout her body of work, spinning bizarre and dreamlike tales.

 

The Pin-up series has been evolving rapidly. Each individual movie star develops their own firm identity, as if they were a solid memorable character starring in one of Rivans’ invented scripts. These leading ladies have been highly influenced by strong female actors like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford who made a huge impression on Rivans when she was a child. The Pin-up characters hold qualities of women who are particularly empowered and have recently been named after famous women explorers and inventors.

 

Maria exhibits her work across the UK as well as internationally - New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe. Most recently she had a solo show at the Saatchi Gallery, London and showed with Christies for their ‘Out of the Ordinary’ sale. 'Lady Valentina’ is the campaign image for both London and Milan Affordable Art Fair.  'Carina' was the face of the Scoop International Fashion Show held at the Saatchi Gallery May 2015. Nordea Private Banking selected ‘Scarlett’ to head their campaign for Stockholm Affordable Art Fair.