Chris Rivers

The Work

A self-taught painter, ten years in.

Chris Rivers is a self-taught artist from Manchester, born in 1983. A former professional rock drummer, he picked up oil paint in 2014 — and within ten years had become one of the most distinctive abstract painters working in Britain today. His large-scale oil paintings are dramatic, charged, and full of incident: turbulent skyscapes, swirling celestial vortices, and great hazes of saturated colour that, on closer inspection, are quietly populated by tiny figures, flowers, insects, and rococo flourishes.

The work explores what Chris calls a contrast between innocence and something darker. Soft light filters through complementary mists; rich, sublime colour swells then recedes; and within the storm, hidden detail emerges. The result is a world that holds two registers at once — the vast and the intimate, the cosmic and the human.

Today Chris is represented internationally by Pontone Gallery in London and Friedrichs Pontone in New York, with recent solo exhibitions including Supernova, Cosmos, Universal, and Celestial Gardens.

Currently Showing

Supernova II at Pontone Gallery, London

Thomas Chard with Chris Rivers in front of one of his cosmic blue circular paintings at Supernova II, Pontone Gallery, April 2026 — Thomas Chard with Chris Rivers at Pontone Gallery, opening day of *Supernova II*.

Chris’s first major solo show of 2026 traces a decade of work — from industrial landscapes through the cosmic voids of cherubs and astronauts, into recent paintings drawn from British myth, folklore and astrological lore. The work sits in the lineage of Turner and John Martin: vigorously applied oil paint, ultramarines and rosy pinks against viridian green, a small human figure making its way through the sublime and the indifferent.

24 April – 30 May 2026 · Pontone Gallery, 74 Newman Street, London W1T 3DB

View the exhibition at pontonegallery.com →

Selected Works

From the Zodiac series.

Four pieces from Chris’s ongoing astrological cycle, currently showing as part of Supernova II at Pontone Gallery, London. Each work marks a sign of the zodiac in oil, mixed media and inset crystal — printed by us as giclée editions on Hahnemühle Agave.

Chris Rivers Zodiac Cancer painting — pearl-toned moon disc on a sage green and rose pink cosmic field, with embedded crystal stars — **Cancer**The pearl moon, ringed and inward-turningOil, mixed media & inset crystal

Chris Rivers Zodiac Aquarius painting — deep blue cosmos held within a dark ring on a yellow ochre ground, with embedded crystal stars — **Aquarius**The water-bearer’s blue cosmos against ochreOil, mixed media & inset crystal

Chris Rivers Zodiac Taurus painting — coral, sage and ochre dust cloud field with the silver disc of Venus and curving orbital arcs — **Taurus**Venus rising over a coral and sage dust fieldOil, mixed media & inset crystal

Chris Rivers Zodiac Capricorn painting — copper-rimmed disc framing an ochre and turquoise cosmic landscape with cascading rose and vine — **Capricorn**A copper-rimmed disc, Saturn under cascading roseOil, mixed media & inset crystal

Working with Redcliffe

Capturing the materiality in print.

Chris’s paintings are built on the tactile physicality of oil — impasto crusts, glassy glazes, the slow layering of pigment that catches light differently from every angle. Translating that to a print is delicate work; the paper has to do half the lifting.

For his giclée editions, Chris prints with us on two papers chosen for exactly this reason: the felt-marked surface of Canson Aquarelle Rag, and the rough natural-fibre tooth of Hahnemühle Agave. Both deliver the colour saturation his work demands while keeping the painterly soul of the original intact.

Chris’s chosen paper

Canson Aquarelle Rag

Watercolour fine-art paper · 100% cotton

310gsm
Felt-markedfinish
100% cottonfibre
Mould-madeprocess

Acid & lignin free · archival quality

& also

Hahnemühle Agave

Natural Line · sustainable agave fibre

290gsm
Mattfinish
Agave sisalfibre
Natural Lineprocess

Acid & lignin free · sustainable, archival

Want prints like this for your work?

Print your art with the same care.

Whether you work in oil, acrylic, watercolour, or photography, we’ll help you find the right paper to do justice to your originals. Order an archival giclée print, request a free file check, or browse our full range of Hahnemühle, Canson, and St Cuthberts Mill papers.

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A self-taught painter, ten years in.

From the Zodiac series.

Capturing the materiality in print.

Print your art with the same care.

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