Robert Nava

Art Brokerage: Robert Nava American Artist: b. 1985. 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 bizarre 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. Nava makes art from the mundane. In his ongoing series of truck paintings, he paints the back of trucks in bright, geometric forms. While their bold color schemes and simple shapes turn the everyday subjects into abstraction, a personal narrative is attached to them as well. When making his way as a painter in New York City, Nava supported himself as a mover. He spent a lot of time driving a truck, and waiting behind other trucks. Sitting in the New York traffic, Nava observed the vast breath of the city; the crisscrossing lives of many different people and histories brought together on the streets. For Nava, this familiar view became a symbol of transience, a trace of the invisible labor in the city, and a recognition of overlooked beauty. Listings wanted.