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The work of Maria Rivans is known for its mash up of surrealism meets pop art. Her scrapbook like collages with their 1950s pop culture references have all the playful delight of an early Paolozzi, mixed with the strange surreality of a Dali, and brought up to date with a certain sophistication and quirky aesthetic, unique to Rivans. ‘Horse Shy’ was first released at the artrepublic Art Yard Sale on Sunday 5th June 2016, in which some of the biggest names in the contemporary art world came together in Brighton’s Jubilee Square, giving fans the chance to buy from the artists directly. ‘Horse Shy’ depicts a scene from a 1950s film, with two figures in Roman dress. A woman kneels in the foreground wearing a blue cloak and above her sits a figure in rich, red attire whose face has been obscured by a large black box, flecked with glitter, containing two galloping horses. There is a comedy to this otherwise beautiful image the ‘horse shy’ woman turning her face away from the black box head yet Rivans’ aesthetic is still powerful and compelling, through its use of intense colour, hand finished, iridescent glitter and bold composition.
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