Paper Trip. Denis Riva

The creative act of the artist Denis Riva can be described in terms of escape and stop: the painter is a hare, fugitive, wandering in the countryside, on the edge of the roads, across and along the roads. He runs then he suddenly stops. He stands still and stares at a point, and in this steadiness, in this standstill of body and gaze he meets and he sees.
In the running there is some sort of blindness, body and mind are totally involved in the effort, in a direction, a drawn toward something. The halt is caused by a meeting, a collision, with something or somebody that comes between the fugitive and his horizon. Every stop is a vision.
Denis Riva was born in Cento (Ferrara) in 1979, and currently lives and works in Palata Pepoli (Bologna). He has been exhibiting since 1997 and, besides being a painter and illustrator, he also plays saxophone in the Trabant Mobil band. Riva's research is also focused on video and installations.