Riya was born and raised in Hong Kong. Her work reflects the myriad cultural influences and experiences that have shaped her identity; and the way she perceives the world – a paradox of simultaneous connection and individualistic isolation. Riya’s art is east meets west, traditional meets modern, and spiritual meets material. She combines visual representations of traditional Eastern (primarily Indian and Chinese) cultures with styles and symbols of modern Western cultures to comment on the state and psychology of our society, and our obsession with the self, power, and material consumption. We try to find happiness, beauty and peace externally, forgetting that this is our true nature. The state of bliss we are constantly searching for exists within us the whole time, and connects all of us, if we just allow ourselves to see it.

Through a graphic and often very intricately detailed presentation, Riya aims to break down social constructions of difference and divisions by portraying juxtapositions, as a metaphor for the barriers that we create as a society; and tries to engage viewers to reflect on their impermanent identities in contemporary society and remind them of their true place in the greater universe as pure and eternal beings. There are often hidden messages – shapes, images, text – within her work, so that the viewing experience is interactive and thought-provoking.

Riya has worked on murals in San Francisco and Philadelphia. She values the impact that public art can have on a place and its community; both during its creation process, and existence thereafter; and is so grateful for the opportunity to join HKWalls this year.

Riya是在香港土生土長的。她的作品反映了塑造她身份的不同文化和經歷，以及她對世界的觀感－一種同時存在的聯繫和個人主義孤立的對立。  Riya的藝術是東方與西方的匯聚，傳統與現代相融合，靈性和物質的結合。她將傳統東方（主要是印度和中國）文化的視覺表現與現代西方文化的風格和象徵結合起來，評論社會的現狀和心理，以及我們對自我，權力和物質消費的痴迷。我們試圖從外面的世界尋找幸福，美麗與和平，卻忘記了這是我們的本質。我們一直在尋找的幸福狀態在其實是存在在我們自己的心裡， 並且連接我們所有人，前提是我們要讓自己看到它。

透過一個細膩的圖案和往往複雜的細節，Riya旨在通過描繪來打破社會建構出來的差異和分歧，並作為我們創造的社會障礙的隱喻;亦試圖讓觀眾反思他們在當代社會中的無常身份，以及提醒他們在更廣闊的宇宙中的真正永恆和純潔的身份。她的作品中常常隱藏著不同的訊息 – 形狀，圖像和文字，因此觀看作品是一個互動而且發人深省的體驗。

Riya曾在三藩市和費城製作過壁畫。她很重視公共藝術對一個地方及其社區的影響;包括其創作過程及作品的存在。她亦非常感謝今年有機會參與今年的HKWalls。