Iván Navarro
The artist
Born in 1972 in Santiago, Iván Navarro grew up under the Pinochet dictatorship. He has lived and worked in New York since 1997. Iván Navarro uses light as his raw material, turning objects into electric sculptures and transforming the exhibition space by means of visual interplay. His work is certainly playful, but is also haunted by questions of power, control and imprisonment. The act of usurping the minimalist aesthetic is an ever-present undercurrent, becoming the pretext for understated political and social criticism.
Exhibitions
-
Celestialand
November 3 - December 23, 2022
New York -
Constellations of Fate
April 27 - July 16, 2022
Brussels -
Planetarium
January 30 - May 11, 2021
Paris - Beaubourg -
Prostutopia
September 6 - October 20, 2018
Brussels -
Fanfare
March 11 - May 13, 2017
Paris - Beaubourg -
Nacht und Nebel
January 16 - February 22, 2014
Brussels -
Where is the next war ?
April 25 - June 1, 2013
Paris - Beaubourg -
Nowhere Man
September 5 - October 24, 2009
Paris - Beaubourg -
Antifurniture
March 1 > April 5, 2008
Paris - Beaubourg -
Spy Glass
December 10, 2005 - January 18, 2006
Paris - Beaubourg
Biography
| Birth | Born in 1972 in Santiago, Chile |
|---|---|
| Residency | Lives and works in New York, USA |
| Education | 1991-1995, BFA, Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. Santiago, Chile. |
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
| 2025 | TEMPLON, Paris, France |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Reloj Solar, Galeria Madre, Santiago, Chile |
| 2023 | Iván Navarro, Peninsula Hotel, New York, USA Silent Homeless Lamp, installation temporaire, Sunset Boulvard, Los Angeles, USA Eccidio, MicroMuseo di Arte Contemporanea della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy |
| 2022 | Celestialand, TEMPLON, New York, USA Thunder, Martin Asbaek Gallery in collaboration with TEMPLON, Copenhagen, Denmark Constellations of Fate, TEMPLON, Brussels, Belgium This Land is Your Land, Art-OMI Sculpture Park, Ghent, New York, USA (2022-2024) |
| 2021 | Planetario, Galeria Madre, Santiago, Chile Iván Navarro, Hôtel Peninsula, Paris, France Planetarium, CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Paris, France Planetarium, TEMPLON, Paris, France Desvanecer, Galeria Luciana Brito, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| 2020 | This Land is Your Land, The Momentary, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA ExFinito, Farol Santander, Sao Paulo, Brazil KM8, Grand Paris Express, Paris, France |
| 2019 | Bifocal, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires, Argentina Shinsegae Gallery Daegu, Shinsegae Daegu, South Korea This Land is Your Land, Paradise Art Space, Incheon, South Korea Homeless Lamp (video screening), Macro Museum, Rome, Italy Nocturno, Il Posto, Santiago, Chile Clamor, Il Posto, Santiago, Chile |
Voir plus
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
| 2024 | Under Pressure, Poli/Gráfica, Puerto Rico Au bout de mes rêves, La Tripostal, Lille, France La Conciencia Brillante, CristalLlíquido y Pantallas Expandidas, CAB - Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Burgos, Spain Enlazando Mundos, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Bajo presión / Under Pressure, Poli/Gráfica de Puerto Rico: América Latina y el Carib, Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española, Puerto Rico Light/Neon, Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA Navigli, Outdoors Projects, Milan, Italy |
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| 2023 | Premiere of the 2023 installations, The Bunker Art Space, West Palm Beach, FL, USA Paving Roads for Latin America: The Pioneering Work of Celia Birbragher, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL, USA Grand Paris Express projects, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris, France Au bout de mes rêves, Le Tripostal, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Lille, France Chile: Memory and Future, The Gallatin Galleries, NYU, New York, USA Lumière et Mouvement, Villa Datris Foundation, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France Mental Space, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum, New York, USA Capacete 25th Anniversary, Marli Matsumoto Galeria, Sao Paulo, Brasil Chile: Memory and Future (Collaboration with Courtney Smith), The Gallatin Galleries, New York University, New York, USA Light is Life, Donizetti Museum and Temple of Santa Croce, Bergamo, Italy INTERPLAY, SITE SANTA FE, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA Cohecho, Centro de Documentación de las Artes Visuales, Santiago, Chile |
| 2022 | Cluster II, III and V, exhibited at Domaine Pommery, Reims, France COLLECTION, The Miniature Museum of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2021 | Ithra – Seeing & Perceiving, King Abdulaziz Center for world culture, Saudi Arabia Mirrors / Mirages, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands International Festival Santiago a Mil, Santiago, Chile Noor Riyadh Festival, King Abdullah Financial District, Conference Center, Riyad, Saudi Arabia Seeing and Perceiving, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia |
| 2020 | Water Reverie, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey Mappa Mundi, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium Recycler, Surcyclage, Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France The Light House, Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium Les Extatiques, La Défense, Paris, France KM8, Grand Paris Express, Paris, France |
| 2019 | Southamerican Rockers, Galeria Revolver, Buenos Aires Santiago: Ciudad Destino, Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile Art in Resonance, Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong, China Prism Fantasy, Paradise City, Incheon, South Korea BIENALSUR, Home sweet home, Brazil Embassy, Palacio Pereda, Buenos Aires, Argentina Space Exploration, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon, South Korea One if by Land, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China Declassified History: Archiving Latin America, Sur Gallery, Toronto, Canada Art in Resonance, Peninsula Hotel, Paris, France Otrxs Fronterxs, Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos, Santiago, Chile XIV Bienal de Nuevos Medios, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile Trenza - Asilo (in collaboration with Courtney Smith), Macro, Roma, Italy Trenza (in collaboration with Courtney Smith), Museo de Arte Contemporâneo de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Trenza (Courtney Smith and Ivan Navarro), Sala de Maquinas, Santiago, Chile, curated by Pablo León De La Barra 12th International Cairo Biennale (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Cairo, Egypt |
| 2018 | Hyperobjects, Marfa Ballroom, (curated by Laura Copelin and Thimoty Morton), Texas, USA Miroir miroir, MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland Bending Light: Neon Art 1965 to Now, Neuberger Museum, Purchase, USA Age of Terror, Imperial War Museum, London, UK Museo de Arte Contemporâneo de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Duets, LAND, Los Angeles, USA Chicago Manual of Style, Chicago, USA Assemblage: An Organically Grown Exhibition, Palm Beach, USA Latinoamerica: Volver al Futuro, MACBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (curated by Federico Baeza) Sur-Sur “desaparición de los andes”, Centro Cultural Rojas, Buenos Aires, Argentina Luz y Espacio, Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain Grandes Artistas Latinoamericanos, Colección FEMSA en el Centro Cultural Palacio la Moneda en Santiago de Chile Duets, LAND, Los Angeles, USA Chicago Manual of Style, Chicago, USA |
Voir plus
COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)
| 21C Museum, Louisville, USA | |
| The Bangkok EDITION, Bangkok, Thailand | |
| Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey | |
| Caldic Collection, Rotterdam, The Netherlands | |
| Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain | |
| CENTRO University, Mexico City, Mexico | |
| Colección CASA, Santiago, Chile |
Voir plus
GRANTS, AWARD, RESIDENCIES AND PROJECTS
| 2025 | Permanent installation at Metro station Villejuif Institut Gustave Roussy, (collaboration with architect Dominique Perrault), Grand Paris Express, Paris, France |
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| 2023 | The Grand Paris Express project has been awarded the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for urban design by Harvard University (GSD), Boston, USA |
| 2021 | Memorial, Santiago, Chile |
| 2020 | The Ladder, public art installation, San Francisco, USA |
| 2019 | Residency at CCA Andraxt, Mallorca, Spain Video Screening “Homeless Lamp, The Juice Sucker” at MACRO MUSEUM, Rome, Italy Artist Talk, Puerto Ideas, Valparaíso, Chile |
| 2018 | Residency at Fundación Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido, Mexico Permanent installation (collaboration with architect Smiljan Radic) au Teatro Reginal del Bio Bio, Concepcion, Chile |
| 2016 | Press Prize to Best Exhibition of 2016, Santiago, Chile |
Voir plus
Collaborations
| 2024 | Vid Vida Vidajena, (collaboration with Courtney Smith) La Capilla Azul Chiloé, Chile |
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| 2023 | Tierra Sin Tierra, (in collaboration with Hueso Records) Teatro Italia, Chaco Las Ramas, (collaboration with Courtney Smith) Tierra Sin Tierra, Teatro Italia, Chaco El Paso (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Hawuapi – PS122, New York, USA |
| 2022 | Panorama (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Van Alen Institute, Brooklyn, USA Girasol, (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Revolver, New York, USA Remolino De Suerte (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Van Alen Institute, Brooklyn, USA |
| 2019 | Lotus Pool (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt Trenza - Assilo (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Macro, Roma, Italy Trenza (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Sala de Máquinas, Santiago, Chile |
| 2017 | Value Exchange (collaboration with Courtney Smith), LAND, Los Angeles, USA |
| 2016 | Interventions III (collaboration with Courtney Smith) Curated by Isidro Blasco and Piril Gunduz, #1608 President Street, Brookly, New York, USA Espacios revelados (collaboration with Courtney Smith) Plaza Yungay, Plaza Brasil and Torres de Tajammar, Santiago, Chile Cancha (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Espacio O. Santiago, Chile |
| 2015 | Cuadrilla de Yungay (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Casona Yungay, Santiago, Chile La Ley de la Precipitación (collaboration with Courtney Smith), 12 Bienal de Artes Mediales, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chil New Ways Of Seeing: Beyond Culture (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Co-curated by Jan Garden Castro and Eileen Jeng, Dorsky Gallery, New York, USA The Music Room III (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Sonar, Santiago, Chile The Music Room II (collaboration with Courtney Smith), Centro de las Artes 660, CorpArtes, Santiago, Chile |
Voir plus
PROJETS PUBLIQUES
| 2025 | Cadran Solaire, Grand Paris Express, Permanent installation at Metro station Villejuif Institut Gustave Roussy, in collaboration with architect Dominique Perrault Paris, France |
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| 2023 | Landless Land, Moving Image Media Art, City of West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA |
| 2022 | Cohecho, Centro de Documentación de las Artes Visuales, Santiago, Chile This land is Your Land, Art-OMI, Ghent, New York, USA |
| 2021 | Un Río de Sangre, Rio Mapocho, Festival Santiago a Mil, Santiago, Chile |
| 2020 | This Land is Your Land, The Momentary, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA The Ladder (Sun or Moon), San Francisco, USA (permanent installation) |
| 2019 | This Land is Your Land, Paradise Art Space, Incheon, South Korea |
| 2018 | This Land is Your Land, Navy Piers, Chicago This Land is Your Land, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea Shine or Rain, Hangang Art Park Creation Project (permanent installation), Seoul, South Korea Es-Telar, Teatro Regional del BiO, in collaboration with architect Smiljan Radic (permanent installation), Concepcion, Chile |
Voir plus
PUBLICATIONS (SELECTION)
| Iván Navarro, Land Mark, Archivorum, Berlin and Kodoji Press, Baden, 2022 | |
| Iván Navarro, Welcome, Editions TEMPLON and Skira, 2020 | |
| Iván Navarro, Espejos y Espejismos – Mirrors and Mirages, Editions Manuel Cirauqui, 2017 | |
| Iván Navarro, Una guerra silenciosa e imposible, CorpArtes, Santigo de Chile, 2015 | |
| Iván Navarro, Threshold, Venice Biennale, Charta, Venice, 2009 | |
| Iván Navarro, Editions TEMPLON, Paris, 2007 |
Press
Les blogs de l'art helvétique contemporain - novembre 2022
Iván Navarro : lumière nuit
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret
Stir World - juillet 2022
Navarro's sculptures navigate economic, political connotations of daily life
Le Soir - mai 2022
Les constellations d'Iván Navarro
Wallpaper* - février 2021
Iván Navarro's cosmic sculptures illuminate dark forces
SF Arts - décembre 2020
Illuminate SF Brightens Up Winter Nights
Connaissance des Arts - novembre 2020
Iván Navarro, abîmes électriques
ArtDaily - juillet 2020
Ivan Navarro's The Ladder
Collect - septembre 2018
Prostutopia
Focus Vif - août 2018
Ivan Navarro: Prostutopia
Ocula.com - mai 2018
A conversation with Ivan Navarro
L'Echo - février 2014
Des mises en abîme à la lumière des néons
La Libre Belgique (supplément ARTS) - février 2014
La lumière crue
The Art Newspaper - février 2014
Shining a light on History
Slash Magazine - 2012/2013
Iván Navarro: Where is the next war?
Art News - janvier 2012
Iván Navarro: Man of Refraction
NYO Magazine - mars 2011
Iván Navarro : Lighting up the Armory Show
ArtNexus - 2010
Iván Navarro
Beaux-Arts Magazine - 2009
Une longueur d'avance
Annual - 2009
The end of the tunnel
Connaissance des arts - septembre 2009
Iván Navarro, l'être et le néon
Art Review - 2008
Iván Navarro: Antifurniture
Flash Art - 2005
Entropology
News
Jean-Michel Alberola
Iván Navarro
THE LIGHT HOUSE – GROUP SHOW
From October 22, 2020 to April 18, 2021
Fondation Boghossian - Villa Empain, Avenue Franklin Rooseveltlaan 67, B - 1050 Brussels
The exhibition The Light House invites the public to experience a succession of personal and collective experiences with light, mostly immersive, through the works of major contemporary artists, spanning nearly 60 years of artistic production. The exhibition revolves around five themes: celestial light, murky light, the experience of colour, the praise of shadow, neon lights and light bulbs.
Iván Navarro
THIS LAND IS YOU LAND – TRAVELLING INSTALLATION
Starting July 2, 2020
The Momentary, 507 SE E St, Bentonville, AR 72712, États-Unis
The Momentary, a satellite contemporary art space to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, Arkansas), announces a new visual art project by Iván Navarro, free for the public to experience.
Inspired by Woody Guthrie’s iconic 1940 song of the same name, Iván Navarro’s series of three water towers examines the history of migration in the Americas and the United States. During the Great Depression, the water tower became a symbol of hope and opportunity for nomadic workers. According to Navarro, “every time they saw a water tower, they jumped out of the train because it signaled economic activity in that town.” Visitors can step beneath the towers and look up at the repeated messages that are inspired by Navarro’s personal history as an immigrant.
Before making its way to the Momentary, ‘This Land is Your Land’ was previously on view in Madison Square Garden in New York City, and most recently at the Navy Pier in Chicago (USA).
Iván Navarro
THE LADDER – SOLO SHOW
1066 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102, États-Unis
From 28 May 2020, Permanent installation
For his first permanent site-specific public artwork, Iván Navarro unveiled a new project, THE LADDER, in San Francisco, US. The project, located on the façade of the 12-story tower fronting Market Street, consists of a ten-storied neon and steel ‘ladder,’ resembling a functional fire escape. THE LADDER subtly combines both the public space and the public imagination, by merging familiar visual languages iconic to urban architecture in the United States, whose structures adorn facades but whose functions are long buried beneath their nostalgic beauty. The charged combination of these two forms, provokes a conceptual and material dislocation that is the essence of artistic subversion.
Iván Navarro
Yue Minjun
LES EXTATIQUES – GROUP SHOW
Paris La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine)
From June 25 to October 4
Daniel Templon est âgé de 21 ans lorsqu’il fonde la galerie en 1966, rue Bonaparte dans le quartier de Saint-Germain-des-Prés. D’abord ouverte sous le nom de Cimaise-Bonaparte dans la cave d’un antiquaire, la galerie déménage rapidement à l’étage, avant de déménager en 1972 dans le Marais, rue Beaubourg, à quelques pas du futur Centre Pompidou.
Jim Dine
Iván Navarro
RECYCLAGE/SURCYCLAGE – GROUP SHOW
From June 20 to November 1, 2020
Fondation Villa Datris, 7 Avenue des Quatre Otages, 84800 L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France
This year, the Fondation Villa Datris decided to explore a current issue: the act of recycling, through sculpture. At a time where sustainable development has become a priority, contemporary artists took over the topic to explore it through a creative eye. They used imagination and inspiration to create a new world flows. Numerous artists tried to recycle. Among them are Jim Dine and Iván Navarro who made their way into the exhibition, underlining our presents concerns.
Iván Navarro
MAPPA MUNDI – GROUP EXHIBITION
From march 5 to october 4, 2020
Boghossian foundation, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 67B, 1050 Bruxelles
The exhibition presented by the Boghossian foundation explores artistic representation of the planet: map, frontiers and travels, social and ecological upheavals. Visitors discovers a selection of contemporary works revealing their vision of the globe through many different medium. The representation of the world, as much today than yesterday, comes from scientific and convenient necessity to perceive our geography, far and near, as a vivid source for the imagination. Contemporary artists such as Iván Navarro are still captivated by the world map and constantly try to reinvent it or transform it. For Navarro, the new mappa mundi is a complex overlay of neon and mirrors, brought to life by electrical power.
Iván Navarro
GRAND PARIS EXPRESS IN COLLABORATION WITH DOMINIQUE PERRAULT
FUTUR TRAIN STATION "GARE DE VILLEJUIF"
As part of its artistic and cultural brief, GRAND PARIS EXPRESS has announced that Iván Navarro will be one of its guest artists, working with architect Dominique Perrault (DPA) on the future Villejuif-Institut Gustave Roussy station. Grand Paris Express is Europe’s largest urban infrastructure project, with 200-km of new automated metro lines and 68 new stations to build by 2030, designed by influential modern architects. As part of this unprecedented urban transformation project, and to promote the emergence of a unified city-wide identity, Société du Grand Paris (SGP) has launched a major arts programme under the direction of José-Manuel Gonçalvès. Each new station will be the setting for a lasting artistic intervention, fruit of the convergence between two creative worlds, architect and artist working in tandem. The programme will lead to the creation of a vast body of multi-disciplinary art, with an impact simultaneously local and city-wide. Iván Navarro and Dominique Perrault are one of the first architect-artist pairs to be announced. They will work together on the Villejuif Institut-Gustave Roussy station, collaborating on a project focused on sensations of depth and the interplay of light.
Iván Navarro
IVáN NAVARRO : BIFOCAL
MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORANEO DE BUENOS AIRES, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA November 15, 2019 - March 1, 2020
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires presents BIFOCAL, a solo exhibition of the internationally recognized Chilean artist Iván Navarro. In collaboration with Revolver Galería (Buenos Aires and Lima), Templon Galerie (París), Galería Isabel Aninat (Santiago de Chile) and Luciana Brito Galeria (SãIno Paulo), the show will feature a selection of more than fifteen artworks, including neon sculptures and audio-visual installations. Navarro’s work seeks to explore the aesthetic and political dimensions of electricity through perceptual alterations stimulating the spectator in a sensorial and psychological way. Thereby, the artist achieves to reinvent everyday objects to criticize power institutions and ponder about Chilean history.
