Artist Name: Eduardo Navarro
Residency Dates: April-May
Born: 1960
Hometown: Panama City, Panama
Lives & Works: Panama City, Panama
Education: 1981, BS Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, 1985, MBA, The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Bio / Statement:
Eduardo Navarro stands out among Panamanian masters as a champion of expressionism in the contemporary fine arts of the New Millennium. The artist explores his creativity through multiple disciplines such as painting, sculpture, performance art, and installations to create works with a uniquely rebellious visual impact and accomplished metaphors.
Navarro is slightly more anchored in real-world forms, although his subjects are endowed with a supernatural and, at times, ghostly power. His works command our attention because of the subjects they present. It does this daringly, creating fierce figures that simultaneously attract and repel, reminding us of the dark, hallucinatory work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992).
After winning the Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño 1994 International August Salon Prize in Bogotá, –one of the most prestigious in Colombia– his career has progressed steadily. The artist uses his brushstrokes to render before us his very soul.
This is where Navarro achieves extreme artistic sophistication, balancing content with form, with the latter providing emotional support to the idea of the former, upstaging it, but not too obviously. Works of this stature, such as La sala de espera (The Waiting Room) earned him a Bronze Medal at the 1996 Osaka Triennial. He also has exhibited his works around the world, with international showings in Germany, Italy, Spain, Monaco, South Africa, USA, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, China and Japan. He has had solo exhibitions in venues such as: Ma, Habitante Gallery, Panama City (2018); Centauri, UBS Latina America Headquarters, Panama City (2014); Horses, Grahams Gallery, Johanesburg (2012); Metal & Paper, Habitante Gallery, Panama City (2012); Obra Reciente, Habitante Gallery, Panama City (2009); Obra Reciente, Arcaute Gallery, Monterrey (2006); Horses, Recoleta Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2004).
His work has been featured in various group exhibitions including Asia Americas Art, Panama-Taiwan Matching Points, Traveling Exhibition: Taiperi County Government Gallery, Yeng-Shen Art Center, Grand Vista Gallery, National University of Art, Taipei (2009); Shanghai Art Fair, Latin American Pavilion, Shanghai (2008); Equinos, Auto Sportivo de Panama, Panama City, (2006); Nuevos Espacios, Habitante Gallery, Panama City (2006); Exposicion Inaugural – Arte Contemporaneo de Panama, Arlene Lachman Gallery, Panama City (2006).
Navarro is currently perhaps best known for his unbridled steeds full of energy, a subject he has been exploring for some 17 years. The artist continues to innovate, however, by using printed fabrics to add another layer of texture to these explosively virile wild beasts, once again showing off his uncontrolled balance between background and form. But the horse is simply a pretext for Eduardo Navarro to explore his expressionistic energy. What better animal to represent the spiritual freedom and rebellion in the splashes of the artist’s brush than a galloping horse? What better form of life to oppose to the dramatic weight of his human figures than an unfettered stallion?
See the interview with the artist here.
See this video for more information about the artist.
Public collections:
• OSAKA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER. Osaka, Japan.
• MUSEUM OF ART OF FORT LAUDERDALE. Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
• MUSEO DEL CANAL INTEROCEANICO DE PANAMA (Panama Canal’s Interoceanic Museum). Panamá.
• CENTRO CULTURAL DE MIRAFLORES (Miraflores Cultural Center)
• MUSEO DE ARTE (Museum of Art). Centro Cultural Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá; Colombia.
• MUSEO LATINOAMERICANO DE ARTE CONTEMPORANEO (Latin American Museum of Contemporary Art). Balboa, Panama.
• CENTRO WILFREDO LAM (Wilfredo Lam Center). La Habana, Cuba.
• MUSEO DE ANGELES (Angels Museum). Turégano, Segovia; Spain.
• OPPENHEIMER COLLECTION. Johannesburg, South Africa.
Support: Eduardo Navarro’s residency is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, NY.
