Robert Nava’s energetic canvases transport the viewer to a childlike world of real and imaginary creatures—from sharks and angels to dragons and, as seen in Vision Probably Rabies, rabid dogs. For Nava, these fantastical themes represent an effort to return to the marvelous worlds his imagination conjured in his youth. After earning his MFA at Yale University in 2011, the Brooklyn-based artist departed from the academic techniques he learned and fostered an approach that has earned him comparisons to the Bad Painting movement of the 1980s, as well as to the work of art brut painters such as Jean Dubuffet. Executed in 2019, Vision Probably Rabies captures the diverse array of Nava’s influences from graffiti and cave art to cartoons, whilst tapping into the artist’s raw, unhindered imagination.
"I wanted to return to my childhood interests. I wanted to see these fabled creatures in my studio. I’m interested in a new kind of mythmaking, even though there are no real stories behind them yet." —Robert Nava
Deeply interested in fantastical animal hybrids—a serpent with the head of a tiger, a shark with feathery angels’ wings—Nava often divides his canvases in half with a diagonal line, on each side of which are the fragmentary forms of different creatures. In Vision Probably Rabies, the diagonal creates a boundary between the outline of a growling dog and the more schematic figures of a snake and an amorphous face. The effect of this divide is to add a subtle layer of complexity and ambiguity to the composition; indeed, the artist’s paintings are often more complex than they appear at first glance, planned over many sketched designs before he puts paint to canvas. “I think the zone comes by continuously drawing in my sketchbook,” the artist revealed. “It’s like an athlete practicing a three-point shot—when the game comes, he can just hit the shot without thinking about it.”ii