Robert Nava

A group of works on paper—created with different combinations of oil, acrylic, graphite, colored pencil, and crayon—will figure in the presentation, offering a glimpse into Nava’s robust drawing practice. “I usually begin every morning drawing in my sketchbooks, listening to music,” he has said. The relationship between his paintings and drawings is fluid: “The drawing impacts the painting, but it isn’t necessarily directly related every time.” In works like Diamond Sword (charged) (2024), sketch and brush stroke converge to form a malleable world in which a rabbit morphs into dragon amid a background of tactile washes of black.

This ambiguity, which characterizes all of Nava’s work, becomes deeper and more intense in his paintings. Not only is there a productive tension in his technique, but his subject matter, too, embraces dualities. “I’m sometimes at the edge where humor and tragedy collide,” Nava has said. In his artistic universe, benevolence and malevolence are constantly at odds with one another. In paintings such as Love Seal (2025) and Night Sky Leap Bunny (2025), vibrant colors—blues, reds, and greens—are juxtaposed with gestural applications of black and grey paint, as well as marks of luminous white

and electric yellow.

Suit of water (Grease Evolution) (2024), another work on paper in the exhibition, depicts a dog-dragon hybrid that appears to carry off a two-headed goose. This composition, which recalls Bernini’s sculptures of abductions from Greek mythology, speaks to the artist’s enduring interest in the clash of innocence and experience. In creating new dimensions of his madcap world, Nava draws on a broad range of art historical and pop cultural inspirations, including the paintings of Jacques-Louis David, Cy Twombly, Karel Appel, and Vincent van Gogh; classical myths and ancient art; horror and science fiction; video games; and cartoons such as Pokémon.

Nava’s first solo exhibition in Asia, Tornado Rose, was presented at Pace Seoul in 2023. His work can be found in the collections of the Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris; Art Institute of Chicago; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and other international institutions.