Robin Rivers | Vancouver, Canada
Artist Statement: Robin Rivers is a Vancouver, Canada-based multidisciplinary artist and writer who came to visual art in early 2025 at age 53 after a long, award-winning career in journalism, publishing, literary writing, and arts education. Working in mixed-media photography and collage, she combines her own photography, archival imagery, antique vernacular photography, and the folklore of her Polish and French roots. Her work is a retrieval of women the historical record left out, overlooked, or mis-remembered as a result of power structures, wartime displacement, and systemic erasure. She begins with her own photographic explorations of historic places. In the archives, she works with fragments of art, writing, and photography to reconstruct and examine the nuances of how women have been portrayed in literature and visual mediums throughout history. Where the official record omits, she weaves in what folklore quietly preserves, working at the threshold of these forms of memory to reimagine these women through a feminist lens.
UPCOMING SOLO EXHIBITION
Mixed-Media Photography, October 22, 2026 – January 13, 2027
Mis-Rememberings: Fragments of Longing & Love (Curated by NorthVan Arts)
District of North Vancouver Foyer Gallery, North Vancouver, Canada
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Upcoming Figurative Art Exhibition | Juried selection, Open Call for Artists | Mixed Media Photography Collage | November 2026 | Virtual Exhibition and Catalog | Works accepted: c.1864, Ostrzę (The Blade), and Carried.
Upcoming Spirituality 2026 4th Annual Juried Exhibition | Gallerium | Mixed Media Photography Collage | Online and Artsy | Oct. 29, 2026-Dec. 29, 2026 | Work accepted: “Sibylline”
Forms & Figures 2026 Exhibition | Juried selection curated by Exhibizone | Mixed-Media Photography Collage | Online and Artsy | Sept 17-Nov. 17, 2026 | Work accepted: “Igła (The Needle)”
Small Works Artsy Exhibition | Juried selection curated by the Arts to Hearts Project | Mixed-Media Collage | Artsy | Sept. 21-Oct. 21, 2026
Work accepted: “Ligotée”
NorthVan Arts Rental Program | Juried Selection, Mixed-Media Photography Collage | North Vancouver, Canada | March 2026-March 2027
Three works accepted: “It Was Always You,” “Kiss Me As If It Were The Last Time,” “Let Me Be Your Moon and Stars”
Art Rental Show | Group Exhibition, Mixed-Media Photography
NorthVan Arts CityScape Community Art Space, North Vancouver | March 7-April 11, 2026
Fragments of What Makes Us Alive | Group Exhibition, Collage
Atelier Ghostbirds, Caldas de Rainha, Portugal | March 2026
2025
Places and Spaces | Juried Online Group Exhibition, Photography | Decagon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY | 2025
Anonymous Art Show | Group Exhibition, Collage | North Van Arts, North Vancouver | November/December 2025
Postcards From The Edge | Group Exhibition, Collage | Outsiders and Others, Vancouver, Canada | December 2025
Radiant Horizons | Juried International Online Group Exhibition, Mixed-Media Photography | Sfumato Art Creatives | October 2025
Whisper of The Garden | Juried International Online Group Exhibition, Mixed-Media Photography | Open Call For Artists | September 2025 | Featured artist interview included
My Place | Juried Group Exhibition, Collage | Langley Arts Council, Langley, BC | August 2025
Serenade For The Soul | Group Exhibition, Mixed-Media Photography | The Gallery George, Vancouver, Canada | August 2025
Harmony Arts Festival | Juried Group Exhibition, Collage | West Vancouver, Canada | August 2025
Wish You Were Here | Group Exhibition, Collage | A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY | July 2025
Gallery & Institutional Affiliations:
2026–Present: Roster Artist, L’Original Gallery (PickArt Network), Montreal, QC
2026-Present: Participating Artist, helloart Art Rotation Program, Vancouver, B.C.
2025–Present: Participating Artist, NorthVanArts Art Rental Program, North Vancouver, B.C.
COLLECTIONS
The Traveller, 2025 – Private Collection, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Cathedral, 2025 – Private Collection, Gibsons, BC, Canada
Always, 2025 – Private Collection, Easley, SC, USA
Rosé, 2025, Private Collection, Victoria, BC, Canada
Między Światami, 2026 – Private Collection, Chicago, IL, USA
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Artist Residencies
Upcoming: Mortem, Anthropology of Death: History of Death Rituals Virtual Residency | Ayatana’s Biophilium Death School For Artists | Artist In Residence | Winter 2027
Château Saint Pierre de Mejans, France | Artist In Residence | 2026
Photo Trouvée Magazine Virtual Residency | Artist In Residence | 2025
Château Orquevaux, France | Writer In Residence | 2024
Specialized Training
Illuminated Manuscript Techniques: Medieval Patterns with German illuminated manuscript artist Julia Lumina | 2026
Collage Training with Canadian collage artist Lisa Pijuan-Nomura | 2025
Cyfarwydd 1&2 folklore writing with Welsh mythologist Angharad Wynne | 2022 & 2024
PUBLICATIONS & FEATURES
Visual Arts
From The Artist Directory Feature | Retrieval Series | Kolaj Magazine Newsletter | Sept. 16, 2026
Portfolio Feature and Interview | Collage | Photo Trouvée Magazine Issue 19 | April 2026
“What We Preserve Shapes What We Remember” | Feature | Traveling Easel Substack by Lauryn Kai | 2025
“A Promise Between Only Us” | Collage | Photo Trouvée Magazine Issue 18 | 2025
Exhibition Catalogues
Literary Work
Poetry: “Mother of Sorrows” | Blade and Bloom Arts and Literature Magazine, Issue 1 | 2026
Short Stories: “Mare” | Ghost Stories YYC Volume 4 anthology and exhibition, Ruberto Ostberg Gallery, Calgary | October 2025
Short Story: “Albertine” | Debuted with collage work at The Gallery George, Vancouver | August 2025
Poetry: “Monsters,” “Soft Pants” | Skirting Around Journal, Winter 2025
Novel: Woman On The Wall | 2022
Media
Podcast Episode: “Storytelling Through Visual Art and Writing with Robin Rivers” | Round The Campfire Season 4, Episode 3 | October 2025
Interview: “Meet Author Robin Rivers” | Women of Wisdom Magazine | December 2022
Interview: Jean Book Nerd | September 2022
Podcast Episode: A World Without Books Micro-podcast | Past Forward | September 2022
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Society of Canadian Artists/Société des Artistes Canadiens | Associate Member | 2026-Present
International Council on Archives/Conseil International Des Archives | 2026-Present
Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC) | 2025-Present
The Writer’s Union of Canada | 2022-Present
Alliance of Independent Authors | 2022-Present
Federation of BC Writers | 2019-Present
Historical Novel Society | 2019-Present
TEACHING & LEADERSHIP
Studio Albertine | Studio Intensives and Mentorship | 2026-Present
Run adult collage and writing intensives as well as mentor writers transitioning to visual arts at my studio in Vancouver, Canada.
Quill Academy of Creative Writing | Founder & Director | 2019-Present
Founded and serve as head instructor at academy dedicated to building foundational writing skills and love of literature in young people ages 7-18 through small group and individualized instruction. The Elite program also mentors young writers on paths to publishing their own work.
Our Big Earth Media Co. | Editor/Publisher | 2008-2012
Founded and operated full-service media company publishing Canadian family-based digital periodical and developing community programming. Led brand strategy, digital content development, marketing partnerships, and social media management.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Selected Monthly Challenge Artist | No Name Collective Gallery London Project, UK | June, 2026 | Juried international selection (1 of 5 featured artists) for Ostrzę (The Blade)
Finalist | Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Book Awards for BC Authors | 2023
Multiple Journalism Awards | 1996-1999
National Mental Health Association Media Award, Golden Bell Award, Illinois Press Association, Pacific Northwest Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press
EDUCATION:
B.A. Political Science, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs | 1993