Robert Nava
3 collaborations
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 friends and family. With a multitude of materials including spray paint, acrylic, graphite, and crayons, Nava works on large-scale canvases, pairing thick paint with scribbly line-work that looks like an enlarged sketch. Together, all of this makes up Nava’s absurdist storytelling: a parody of well-known mythic tropes which create their own childish nightmare.
