From Water to Sky Angel, 2020
Acrylic and grease pencil on canvas
85 × 73 inches (215.9 cm × 185.4 cm)
© Robert Nava. Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery
Nava’s solo exhibition Angels marks the debut of Vito Schnabel Gallery’s second New York location.
A year ago, on the eve of New York’s pandemic shutdown, Belgium-based gallery Sorry We’re Closed brought a suite of Robert Nava’s mythical creatures to the Armory Show. Tucked into an exhibition space at Pier 90 were several of Nava’s colorful large-scale paintings depicting ecstatic mythical creatures suspended in activity: a floating witch, dragon breathing fire atop a swatch of bright green grass, a vampire levitating above a castle. Amongst the high volume of work by leading contemporary artists, the whimsy of Nava’s work left a lingering effect. A lot has changed in the past year for Nava.