
Photo by Mel Taing.
“I am a part and symptom of blurry cultural boundaries, performing on a stage of vernacular cannibalizations. I focus my attention in the migration of cultural objects, narratives, practices, and myths.”
Daniela Rivera’s practice is informed by experiences of displacement, memory, and cultural migration. Rivera builds, paints, and draws spaces that reject categorization and invite participants to share agency and vulnerability.
Rivera received her BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1996 and her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston in 2006. She is currently Professor of Studio Art at Wellesley College. She has exhibited in Latin America and the United States and has been awarded residencies at Loghaven, Headland Center for the Arts, Surf Point, Proyecto ACE in Buenos Aires, Vermont Studio Center, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has received notable fellowships and grants including The Chiaro Award, The Rappaport Prize, Now + There, Massachusetts Cultural Council Award, VSC, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Fondo Nacional para el Desarrollo Cultural y las Artes, and the St. Botolph Club Foundation Distinguished Artist Award. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include: Matucana 100 (Santiago), San Francisco Art Commission, Fitchburg Art Museum, The Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Proyecto ACE (Buenos Aires), and a public art project as part of the Now + There Accelerator Fellowship.
Donor -The Wagner Arts Fellowship is generously supported by Wagner Foundation.
This artist page was last updated on: 03.26.2025

Tilted Paradigm by Daniela Rivera, 2024. Fresco-like painting on cement board, mirror, sound, and copper point drawing on wall. Commissioned by the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery.
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Art Commission.

Installation view of Donde el Cielo Toca la Tierraby Daniela Rivera, 2020–24. Oil on canvas, each painting 12 × 30 feet. Installed at Matucana 100 in Santiago, Chile.
Photo by Benjamin Matte.

Donde el Cielo Toca la Tierra by Daniela Rivera, 2024. Adobe and sound installation. Installed at Sala Concrete, Matucana 100 in Santiago, Chile.
Photo by Benjamin Matte.