Biography
Adrián Navarro (1973) was born in Boston and raised in Spain. While he pursued architecture originally, Navarro went on to study art at Central Saint Martins in London, where he eventually settled down in 2007 before going back to Madrid in 2016 where his studio is based. His formal training as an architect still partially influences his work; he seeks to expand the vocabulary of the visual arts, establishing connections between the pictorial medium, perception, architecture and abstraction.
Adrian is an artist whose practice is dominated by gestural abstraction and overcomes it through a digital aesthetic with various levels of information. Navarro defines his paintings as ‘Walls’, whose function is to contain an organic, sensual and colorful world that is revealed to the observer through a permeable white surface. This decomposed 'wall' reveals a volcanic and colorful matter made of gestural brushstrokes expressing an inner feeling of life, a corporeal pulsation.
His 'Wall' series materialize the sum of two realities that coexist to form a meta-painting: a composition on which an enigmatic white texture of imprecise scale is printed over. The superposition itself provides another layer of reality that affects the way we perceive art and highlights the distance between the canvas and the viewer. In the same way, this partially covered background is shown as a buried fossil behind the wall of progress, thus representing a moment of change and giving way to a new painting.
The aesthetic of the ’veiled’ in Navarro’s work assumes that in painting pleasure resides in the mystery of evocation and contemplation, a condition in both cases where silent and concentration is needed.
Adrián has shown in a variety of international exhibitions and his work is in private collections such as UBS Bank, Circa XX, Fundación ENAIRE and Caja Madrid.
Adrian is an artist whose practice is dominated by gestural abstraction and overcomes it through a digital aesthetic with various levels of information. Navarro defines his paintings as ‘Walls’, whose function is to contain an organic, sensual and colorful world that is revealed to the observer through a permeable white surface. This decomposed 'wall' reveals a volcanic and colorful matter made of gestural brushstrokes expressing an inner feeling of life, a corporeal pulsation.
His 'Wall' series materialize the sum of two realities that coexist to form a meta-painting: a composition on which an enigmatic white texture of imprecise scale is printed over. The superposition itself provides another layer of reality that affects the way we perceive art and highlights the distance between the canvas and the viewer. In the same way, this partially covered background is shown as a buried fossil behind the wall of progress, thus representing a moment of change and giving way to a new painting.
The aesthetic of the ’veiled’ in Navarro’s work assumes that in painting pleasure resides in the mystery of evocation and contemplation, a condition in both cases where silent and concentration is needed.
Adrián has shown in a variety of international exhibitions and his work is in private collections such as UBS Bank, Circa XX, Fundación ENAIRE and Caja Madrid.
Education:
1992 - 2000
— MA in Architecture
Polytechnic University of Madrid.
School of Architecture.
2008
— Fine Art Courses
Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design. London
Solo exhibitions:
(selected)
2019
— Interfaz
Galería MAIOR, Pollensa (Mallorca), Spain.
2018
— Paraísos Artificiales
Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid, Spain.
— Landschaft
Da Mihi Gallery, Bern, Switzerland.
2016
— Raumzeit
Maerz contemporary, Berlin, Germany.
2015
— Rings & Fragments
Da Mihi Gallery, Bern, Switzerland.
— Espacios & Loops
Galería Maior, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
2014
— Loops
Galería Maior, Pollensa, Mallorca, Spain.
2013
— Espacio Rojo
Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid, Spain.
2012
— Reflections
Maerz contemporary, Berlin, Germany.
— In & Out
60 Threadneedle Street Art Space, London, UK.
2011
— Ciclo Anillos
Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid, Spain.
2010
— Ring Cycle
Hammerson Art Space, London, UK.
2009
— Implosion
60 Threadneedle Street Art Space, London, UK.
2007
— Galaxia
UBS Bank Exhibition Hall, Madrid. Spain.
Group shows:
(selected)
2021
— Territorio Contémporaneo: Diversos lenguajes en la colección ENAIRE.
Naves de Gamazo, Santander.
— Entornos y Reflexiones: Juan Uslé, Felicidad Moreno, Guillermo Pfaff, Adrián Navarro, Pepa Prieto, Secundino Hernández y Vicky Uslé.
ATLAS, Madrid.
— De tal palo, tal astilla
Sala Mauro Muriedas. Torrelavega (Santander)
2016
— Navarro & Lerín: New Work
12 Star Gallery, London, UK.
2014
— The Collection
Eastmen Gallery, Hasselt, Belgium.
2013
— Geometry of chance
Mirus Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
2012
— Premiere 2013
Maerz contemporary, Berlin, Germany.
2011
— Colectiva
Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid, Spain.
— Sagacity
Forman´s Smoke House Gallery, London, UK.
2010
— Pintura y Escultura
Galería Pilar Serra, Madrid, Spain.
2007
— Salon 07
Seven Seven Contemporary. London. UK.
2005
— Todos mis amigos han muerto
Galería Casa Borne, Antequera, Spain.
2003
— Hernández, Navarro, Mastretta
Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Spain.