Sorry We're Closed, Brussels Acquired from the above by the present owner
Catalogue Essay
Evoking ancient hieroglyphics, Robert Nava’s mythical monsters in Untitled, 2019, 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. Nava’s 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.
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.