BIO

Ria Firth was born in Virginia, United States to a mother biologist and a father aviator and jack-of-all-trades. She spent much of her youth playing with her brother and dog in the wooded foothills of the Appalachian mountains. There she developed intimate bonds with the living forms and characters found in the forest. And there her inspiration for painting emerged and was nourished.

In college, Ria studied art and social anthropology at the University of Mary Washington, Virginia. She was awarded the Rosalie Chauncey Memorial scholarship to study art in Paris, France, where she became an official copyist at the Louvre. She has received numerous other awards for her work, including the Emil Schnellock Award for Excellence in Painting. Her work has been shown multiple countries.

In 2021 she obtained a masters in social anthropology and ethnology at the EHESS, Paris where her studies integrated the disparate processes of social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. The current focus of Ria’s artistic practice interweaves the notions of wilderness and control. Recognizable or perceptible human figures and structures are shown coinciding with and coexisting in undetermined green spaces and vegetal worlds.

EDUCATION

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales 2019

• Masters: Social Anthropology and Ethnology

B.A. University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA 2015

• Majors: Studio Art and Anthropology
  

• Minors: Environmental Sustainability and French

Wells College, Arts in Paris Study Abroad Program 2014
Spring Semester, Paris, France.

International Baccalaureate Diploma, 2011 : George C. Marshall High School, Falls Church, VA

EXHIBITIONS

ORÉE - Visions du vivant 
Au46, Lyon, France 2022

Les Portes Ouvertes des Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville 2020, Paris, France

AAB Exposition Ephemère 2020, La Villette, Paris, France 

Les Portes Ouvertes des Ateliers d’Artistes de Belleville 2019, Paris, France

Transitive Beings, Untitled Factory, 2018,  Paris, France

Le Grand Nu, Untitled Factory, 2017, Paris, France

Liberty Town Invitational Student Exhibition 2015, Fredericksburg, VA

Annual Student Art Juried Exhibition 2015, Fredericksburg, VA

Pretty. Good. Art. 2015
Fredericksburg, VA

Studio Belleville 2014
Paris, France

Fredericksburg Annual Art Show,
Fredericksburg, VA 2012

Scholastic Art Competition,
Falls Church, VA 2011

Town of Vienna Photography Show
Vienna, VA 2009