Although I see myself as an optimist, I have witnessed, and sometimes been part of life’s disturbing mental and physical landscapes. I feel a vague urge to save the world from injustice and threatening outcomes, and although I have no feasible plan for doing so, my journey as an artist leaves me with no choice but to use my work to argue for change.

In my current body of work I take a split approach between celebration and critique of our complex social dynamics.  

As I search for meaning through concepts and images unfolding from my mind and fingertips, I find reality constantly shifting and new layers of truth exposed for deconstruction. My artworks are made through processes of painting, drawing, collage, printing and airbrush, combining abstraction and figuration. I feel drawn to a visual language between pop-realism and neo-expressionism. 

Riana Gear is a Cape Town based artist who studied graphic design at CUT, Freestate and psychology at UNISA.