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Artwork
Images
#identification
#Karen Navarro
#portraits
“Fragment” (2019), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 56 x 48 inches. All pictures © Karen Navarro, shared with permission
Stacked, spinning, and puzzled collectively, Karen Navarro’s vibrant portraits discover myriad sides of identification. Images supplies the muse for the Houston-based artist’s observe, which regularly encompasses sculpture, textual content, and collage to look at concepts round self-representation, gender, race, and a way of belonging. In two of her latest sequence, The Constructed Self and Neither Right here Nor There, Navarro slices daring portraits into cubes or strips, then rearranges the items into shape-shifting patterns.
Born in Argentina, Navarro later immigrated to the USA, and in 2014, she found that she may hint her ancestry to the Mapuche tradition. “I’ve all the time been involved in identification, however this piece of knowledge shook my previous understanding of who I used to be,” she says. The Constructed Self developed from an curiosity within the concurrently private and common human expertise of constructing and exuding a persona. She can also be involved in how one’s perspective can alter what one sees.
By way of fragmenting, layering, and reassembling, Navarro splices pictures with brilliant edges that draw consideration to detrimental house, uneven surfaces, and intersections. She captures digital portraits of her sitters in entrance of strong backgrounds, emphasizing their direct gazes and clothes. Whereas she focuses on others, she sees the work as self-reflective and pushed by “the necessity to have a good time range to reframe the illustration of traditionally marginalized identities.”
“Untitled (rearranged)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 30 x 24 inches
Neither Right here Nor There facilities on first, second, and third-generation immigrants and reconfigures the photographs to visualise the countless technique of forming one’s identification. “I’m interested in the contradiction of making work that’s made out of {a photograph} however ceases to be one once I separate it into items and add different supplies like wooden, paint, and resin,” she says. “It’s not {a photograph}, nevertheless it doesn’t change into a sculpture both…The hybridity of the ultimate paintings conceptually embodies how I really feel, that I don’t belong right here or there.”
Navarro just lately traveled to Argentina to {photograph} folks reconnecting with their Indigenous heritage, and he or she plans to return to current an exhibition of the ultimate works. To assist fund the challenge, she’s going to launch a sequence of prints on Indigenous Peoples Day (October 9). “The work is about reconnecting with my Indigenous identification and celebrating its magnificence,” she tells Colossal. “For me, reconnecting with that a part of my identification is a profound act of resilience, resistance, and reclamation.”
Discover extra of Navarro’s work on her web site, and comply with Instagram for updates in regards to the print launch and future tasks.
“Untitled (perspective)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 35 x 28 x 3 inches
“Displaced” (2022), from ‘Neither Right here Nor There,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, , and epoxy, 24.75 x 23 inches
“Rearranged ll,” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 32 x 30.5 inches
Left: “Fractured” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, epoxy, and vinyl, 50 x 40 inches. Proper: “Twisted” (2020), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, epoxy, acrylic paint, and steel rope, 52 x 18 x 18 inches
“Puzzled” (2020), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 50 x 36 inches
“Untitled (perspective ll)” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 30 x 24 x 3 inches
“Twisted variation” (2021), from ‘The Constructed Self,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, gesso, steel, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 24 x 24 x 15 inches
“Sliced” (2022), from ‘Neither Right here Nor There,’ archival inkjet print, wooden, acrylic paint, and epoxy, 27 x 27.5 inches
#identification
#Karen Navarro
#portraits
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