George Rivera explores the complexities of contemporary life in dark figurative oil paintings, with the darkness expressing both solitary reflection-- the dark night of the soul-- and shared emotional conflict. Both are experienced within "our chaotic times of racism, gun violence, judgment, hope, atrocities against ourselves and one another.” If our times seem conspicuously fraught, it might be because the peace and affluence we Americans have accepted as normal were not givens, and probably not 'normal.' These are the themes which engage Rivera's viewers.
George Rivera received his BA and MFA degrees from San Jose State University. He served as Executive Director and Curator of the San Jose Art League from 1982 to 1985; and as Executive Director and Senior Curator at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara from 1985 to 2013. He has taught at many Bay Area schools, including San Jose State University, the University of California at Berkeley Extension, and Mission College in Santa Clara. In addition, he has judged and curated hundreds of art exhibits over the past four decades. In 2012, a survey of his work was presented at the Art Museum of Los Gatos. His work is in the collections of the Triton Museum of Art (Santa Clara CA), the Morris Graves Museum of Art (Eureka CA) and the NUMU (Los Gatos CA).— DeWitt Cheng
