About

Statement

Maria Riddervold, born in 1979, is a Norwegian architect and artist based in Oslo. She grew up with Norwegian folk tales, stories about trolls and other mythical creatures populating dark forests and tall mountains. She believes the stories and their distinctive illustrations have deeply inspired her artistic direction and view of nature as a source of magic and mystery. With the increasing deterioration of the environment, she fears that nature as a spiritual and mythical origin is diminishing. She seeks to communicate nature as supernatural and peculiar, imbuing her motifs with subtle aliveness and oddity.

She uses ink and watercolor as a foundation and paints intuitively from hand sketches. Her creative process is a dialogue with the liquid media, where intended ideas often collide with the will of the water and the paper, leading her art in new directions.

At first glimpse, Maria’s paintings appear playful and innocent, but they also evoke more complex interpretations depending on the viewer’s memories and perception. Her abstract style hints at shapes like organs, plants, and fungi. Nevertheless, she avoids defining her work, preferring to unite the familiar physical world and the elusive realm of spirits, creating an atmosphere in her paintings that belongs to both.

BIO

Maria is an architect with over fifteen years of experience. In 2017, she expanded her education to include urban planning. While taking a year off in Copenhagen in 2018, she spent time creating art . For the past years, she has worked as a free-lance urban planner and visual artist in Oslo. Maria is also a passionate writer, in 2022 she attended the creative writing programme at the university of Tromsø.

CV

Maria Riddervold, Oslo, b. 1979 Molde, Norway

EDUCATION

The Creative Writing Programme, The University of Tromso (forfatterstudiet i Tromsø), 2022-2023

Master of Urbanism, The Oslo School of Architecture & Design, 2017

Master of Architecture, The Oslo School of Architecture & Design, 2004

EXHIBITIONS

Høstutstillingen Asker Lions, November 2023

Group exhibition, Galleri SOOT, Bærum, March 2023

Solo exhibition, Galleri Mellomrom, Oslo, December 2022