Elias Rivera

Elias Rivera is a New Mexico–based painter known for luminous depictions of New Mexican village life, santos, and the everyday ceremonies of Hispanic Catholic culture. Rivera's work draws on the New Mexican santos tradition — the carved and painted devotional figures that have been produced in the region for over three centuries — while translating it into contemporary oil painting. His figures, bathed in soft, interior light, occupy humble adobe spaces that feel both timeless and deeply particular to northern New Mexico. His work is shown in Santa Fe galleries and collected widely in the Southwest.