A singular talent whose myths and monsters return painting to its childish roots.
Nava’s practice creates its own mythology. His paintings fuse abstract mark-making with child-like figuration that depicts supernatural beings such as witches, ghouls, monsters, and dragons. The works combine the light and the dark, exploring themes of violence, nonsense, folklore, and fantasy. Both ancient and modern influences inform Nava’s work, from Sumerian carvings and cave paintings, to Abstract Expressionism, Bad Painting, and contemporary artists such as Huma Bhabha. As well as art history, Nava pulls inspiration from daily life, often illustrating bizzare anecdotes he has heard from...
Bio
Robert Nava was born in 1985 in East Chicago, USA, and now lives and works in New York.
Practice
Nava pairs canonical art world influences, such as sci-fi abstractions by Huma Bhabha, with the eclectic experiences of his time spent working as a truck driver in New York City.
Process
Energetic, intuitive and uninhibited - while many of his works take much longer, the artist has completed paintings in as little as 27 seconds.
