Artist Spotlight - Marco Riha — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Originally from Austria, Marco Riha started his long creative journey in Sri Lanka in 1995. After painting and traveling for some years, he found his creative home base in Mexico.

phoenix, 2025, tint & spray paint on canvas, 90x90 cm

André Breton describes Surrealism as ‘psychic automatism in its pure state’. For decades Riha has been experimenting with this automatic painting technique, unaware of being a modern-day Surrealist. The self-taught artist drew encouragement from a Québécois resplendent anarchistic art movement called Les Automatistes. Their unacademic, 'total refusal' approach to art provided Riha with a home in art history.

malachitastic, 2025, tint & spray paint on canvas, 30x30cm

Experimentations with all types of mediums include a long fascination with oils on canvas - a symbolic period filled with therapeutic releases, inner and outer travel logs and first screams in color. The 'colorDrops' series from 2014 mark the beginning of the artist's abstract works. This current period includes socio-political pieces about liberty, tolerance, ecocide, division and unity.

transcending hell, 2025, tint & spray paint on canvas, 150x100cm

Marco Riha has been published in several international art magazines and his work has been shown worldwide, in venues like the Saatchi and FOLD Gallery in London, the Rome Art Week, Arte Bratislava Castle in Slovakia and most recently with Primo Piano LivinGallery, one of the leading galleries in Southern Italy.

the veil is thinning, 2025, tint & spray paint on canvas, 90x90 cm

Artist Statement

After almost three decades of creating art instinctually, I realised my method has a long tradition called Surrealist Automatism. I had finally found a home in Art History. The simple act of putting myself aside and see what wants to be created, has led me on a long creative journey.

elephant in the room, 2025, tint & spray paint on canvas, 30x30cm

From my initial symbolic therapeutic releases to my current Surrealist abstractions. Over the years I witnessed my work turn into an inspiring commentary on pop & socio-political culture or lack thereof. Reminding me of the artists I always admired - provocative & fun trail blazers, uncompromising and wild, with an untamed need for liberation.

marcoriha.com
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LinkedIn: Marco Riha