Infusing her paintings with powerful activism, Riva Lehrer has explored such themes on the body, disability, and identity for over 20 years. She was born with spina bifida and has used her artwork to identify critical questions about bodies, creativity, and perspective. Her art has been featured in galleries and museums across the country, and Riva is also a writer and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Her work frequently is composed of portrait series like “Totems + Familiars” which addresses the connection between imagination, survival, and metaphor as well as “Mirror Shards” which extends her use of visual metaphor to explore human’s reliance upon animal symbols to produce empathy. We’ve included some ...