In Short

Evoking ancient hieroglyphics, Robert Nava’s mythical monsters teeter between commemorative gravitas and childlike levity. Intrigued by the mystery inherent to viewing ancient images, such as those in cave painting, when viewed within a contemporary context, the artist envisions enigmatic creatures with untold stories.

Source material photographed in the artist's studio.
“For me, it was more interesting to incorrectly draw an arm or fuck it up by breaking all the rules I learned” – Robert Nava

Cranach the Elder, The Legend of the Mouth of Truth, 1534. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, bpk Bildagentur / Germanisches Nationalmuseum / Jurgen Musolf / Art Resource, NY
Nava’s earliest memories are of making drawings as a child: “My mom would always bring stacks of computer paper home from her work in Chicago; and there would always be crayons and pencils around to just draw.”[i] By the time he was a teenager, he was already trained in painting hyperrealist images in the Renaissance style. While in university, Nava was encouraged to explore other visual languages, a journey which ultimately led him to his current style. “This idea of ‘seriousness in play’ was always at the root of my ideas,” Nava articulated.
Huma Bhabha, Untitled, 2017. Private collection, Artwork © Huma Bhabha	Nava’s approach was informed by myriad influences spanning art history, from the Old Masters to Huma Bhabha, ancient art—primarily Egyptian, Mayan, and Sumerian—to Vincent van Gogh. Interested in the soul and immense impact of the these images, Nava also became obsessed with the “mistakes” he found in the works by this diverse selection of creators. “And even looking at a Renaissance painting, I would be looking for error, like mistakes were more alive to me. By drawing things ‘incorrectly,’ I found more things to do in that realm,” Nava explained. “So that's why I find it more interesting and why I draw and paint like this. It's been like that since probably 2007 or 2008, but now it's getting really refined, and I know what I want to do more.”[ii] According to art journalist Keith Estiler, “before touching the canvas, Nava spends hours rigorously sketching out the forms he wants to create in his sketchbook. This practice allows him to confront the canvas with unbridled confidence” while blasting techno music. “After drawing multiples of the same motif on paper, he attacks the canvas to build his new hybridized monster.”[iii]



[i] Robert Nava, quoted in Lance De Los Reyes, “Robert Nava's Secret Friends,” Office Magazine, April 22, 2020, online. [ii] Robert Nava, quoted in Sasha Bogojev, “In Conversation with Robert Nava,” Juxtapoz, September 18, 2019, online. [iii] Keith Estiler, “Robert Nava’s New Mythologies,” HYPEBEAST, March 19, 2020, online.

Collector's Digest
Nava’s exhibitions at Night Gallery, V1 Gallery, and Sorry We’re Closed were sold out, and The Tunnel marks the artist’s auction debut.

Read more about Robert Nava here.
- Provenance
  Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels
  Private Collection
  Acquired from the above by the present owner
- Artist Biography
  Robert Nava
  Robert Nava (b. 1985) is a contemporary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Using a rough and
  free-flowing hand, Nava recreates the innocent and unlearned art of childhood. His works are
  “carefully done wrong,” subverting the rigid fundamentals of painting and conventions of
  completeness that Nava learned as an MFA student at Yale University. Nava’s paintings often
  feature imagined mythological figures and histories of the artist’s creation whose drama is
  brought to life with the frenetic energy of the artist’s brush.
  
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