Giotto Riva was born in Milan in 1998. After completing his studies at an art high school, he moved to Barcelona, where he spent four years training in classical and figurative painting at the Barcelona Academy of Art. There he completed the advanced drawing and painting program, studying human anatomy, light and form, chiaroscuro and painting techniques through the analysis of the great masters.

The nude has been a constant presence throughout his career and remains central to his research. His gaze moves between the intimacy of the body and the depiction of worldly society: at its heart, obsessively, lies the human, social and psychological condition of contemporary man. He looks to the realism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is drawn to the rebellious spirit of the French Post-Impressionists and the Milanese Scapigliatura.

His painting is built slowly, like that of the old masters: it begins with drawing and the study of light, working both from life and from photographs, which he uses as references for sketches and preparatory studies. Yet the result is strikingly contemporary. His brushwork remains fresh and spontaneous, and his canvases hold an almost cinematic intensity and immediacy. He works mainly in oil on linen, but also explores copper etching, graphite drawing and, more recently, small-scale sculpture.

After returning to Milan, he worked with the Milan Academy of Art, coordinating its painting program. He currently teaches at and coordinates the drawing and painting program of the Milano Painting Academy, supported by the Fondazione Maimeri.

In 2019 he received the University Prize at the Premio Morlotti and second prize for painting at the Premio Artrights. In 2026 he was among the finalists of the 25th edition of the Premio Cairo. His work has been exhibited in Milan, Rome, Barcelona and London, and is held in private collections and in the collection of the Museo della Permanente in Milan.