For the first time, Robert Nava (1985, Chicago) presents a solo exhibition in a museum; it is the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection that presents the show with the Fundación Blanca y Borja Thyssen-Bornemisza. The show is curated by Guillermo Solana, with a selection of 17 pieces made during the period from 2019 to 2024.  

Emerging during the 1970s in the United States, the Expressionist movement broke with academic traditions, giving rise to powerful imagery characterized by exaggerated subjects and spaces. In Nava's paintings, fantastic elements are often juxtaposed with ordinary figures, creating a surreal coexistence in which, for example, a person with a cat or dragon's head can share the same space as a human character.  

Sometimes Nava's characters acquire zoomorphic qualities or appear as a fusion of animal and human traits, blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Nava has created his own mythological realm that resonates in the contemporary era. Influenced by African and Egyptian art, and employing in his canvases diverse mixed techniques such as spray paint, acrylic and wax crayon, Nava succeeds in constructing a mythical universe rich in echoes of popular culture.  

Works such as “Battle of the Olimpo” depict a battle between these zoomorphic characters, such as a centaur with the head of what seems to be a lizard, who shoots an arrow towards a hybrid creature resembling a pony and a demonic dinosaur. Or “Jumanji meets the fire,” which alludes to the movie jumanji, depicting a cat trapped by flames.  

The large-scale works, no smaller than 1.80 cm each, will be on display until September 22, 2024.