Driven by his desire to make new myths responsive to our times, Robert Nava has created a chimerical world of metamorphic creatures, drawing inspiration from sources as disparate as prehistoric cave paintings, Egyptian art, and cartoons.
Rendered through a raw, energetic mixing of spray paint, acrylics, and grease pencil, his large-scale paintings of fantastical beasts exude a playful candidness that defies the pretensions of high art and invites viewers to reconnect with the unbridled imagination of their childhoods.
To develop his uncompromisingly personal style, Nava first dispensed with the rules and conventional attitudes that he had learned while obtaining his MFA in Painting at Yale University—an attitude that aligns him with the irreverent “bad” painting first theorized in 1978 by the New Museum’s founding curator Marcia Tucker. Nonetheless, Nava’s hybrid monsters, which range from the dragon-like to the angelic, are carefully constructed composites that the artist continuously reworks in his sketchbooks. Drawing, in fact, constitutes the bedrock of his practice, a daily discipline of invention.
Often created to the vitalizing beat of techno music, Nava’s paintings conjure a realm awash in magic and possibility, where beings are always seemingly on the verge of transmogrification. Though offering viewers respite from the more cynical and dystopian aspects of today’s world, his paintings do not veer into escapism. Violence and destruction are continuously implied by the ferocity of his characters and the iconoclastic nature of his graffiti-like markings, which build on the gesturalism of Cy Twombly and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His work thus reacquaints viewers with an almost childlike capacity for fantasy and creativity, while offering a meditation on the loss of innocence and its recuperation.
His art has been exhibited in various solo exhibitions both domestically and abroad, including Robert Nava, Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels (2020); Robert Nava: Angels, Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York (2021); Robert Nava, Pace Palm Beach (2021); Robert Nava: Thunderbolt Disco, Pace Gallery, London (2022); Bloodsport, Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2022); Robert Nava: STAND, The Watermill Center, Water Mill, New York (2022); Robert Nava, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid (2024); Robert Nava: After Hours, Pace Gallery, New York (2025); and Robert Nava: Supercharger, Pace Gallery, Tokyo (2026), among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions worldwide, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2022); Long Museum, Shanghai (2022–23); Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary (2023); Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (2023–24); and Ballroom Marfa, Texas (2023–24), among others. He is included in the upcoming NGV Triennial held at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, which opens on December 13, 2026.
Nava’s work is held in public collections worldwide, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; and Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga, Latvia, among others.
