Based in Bologna, he has been teaching sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts since 2004. In 1998, he won a competition to install six monumental gorillas in the courtyard of the Ravenna courthouse, a work that marked a decisive turning point in his career. For each creation, he observes and photographs his subjects in captivity at length in order to capture their individual features and behaviors, transforming his sculptures into unique and expressive portraits.
Rivalta’s work has been featured in numerous group and museum exhibitions, including Modus (a collateral event of the 57th Venice Biennale), Time is Out of Joint at the Galleria Nazionale in Rome, and Un sogno fatto a Mantova at the Palazzo Te in Mantua. His works are also permanently displayed in several Italian, French, and Swiss cities, and he has participated in major events such as the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya (2010), Arte alle Corti in Turin (2016), and the Milan Triennale (2019).
Rivalta draws directly from nature and the animal world to create his monumental sculptures in bronze or resin: lions, rhinoceroses, wolves, buffaloes, and horses. He photographs his models in zoos or enclosures, then faithfully reproduces them through sculpture, revealing both their majesty and the tension between freedom and captivity. “I chose to represent not stereotypical, impersonal images of specimens of each species, but to create true individual portraits,” the artist explains. “Not just any bear, wolf, or rhinoceros, but this bear, this wolf, and this rhinoceros, observed at length in artificial environments where man has confined them, in order to admire, understand, and exploit them. The skin of these animals bears witness to a conflict between nature and artifice, instinct and domestication.”