47
“There is a certain amount of fear in my pieces.” — Iván Navarro
comments both on the use of electricity to torture political prisoners in Chile but also the death penalty — Navarro wrote the names of every individual executed in Florida by the electric chair on the seat. Beyond his social statements, Navarro’s work is characterized by meticulous, sophisticated craftsmanship: Ladder depicts a ladder that seems to stretch into infinity; and in Impenetrable Room, Navarro uses a box to transport musical instruments laced with bright green lights to suggest a never-ending journey.
A Rapid Rise Oscar Murillo was out of paintings. He had a successful showing at the Independent Art Fair in 2012, but they all had sold. However, famed art collectors Donald and Mera Rubell would be visiting his studio in two days, so he went on a nonstop, 48-hour painting binge. His work ended up captivating the Rubells, leading to a successful exhibition at Art Basel in December 2012; and by September 2013, his Untitled (Drawings off the Wall) sold for $401,000 at auction. Since then, prices have cooled off, but the Colombian artist is still drawing raves for his work, which includes painting (using a broomstick), sculpture and performance, often working in text, recycled materials and even dirt. Murillo’s work focuses on class conflicts, the consumer market’s effect on art, and most recently, using art as a critical tool to interpret the world. can take weeks — Otero peels the paint off the glass and glues them to canvas, elaborating these so-called “oil skins” with more brushwork. He says his work method produces “surprises to which I’ve become addicted.” Some critics feel that Otero’s reverse painting blends both abstract and figurative painting that goes beyond post-postmodernism to make original statements, borrowing from past approaches to oil painting to point the way toward the future.
Shedding Light Electricity and light play major roles in the work of Iván Navarro, born in Chile in 1972. He grew up during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and remembers how the government would shut off electricity to keep citizens at home and isolated. “All the pieces I’ve made make reference to controlling activity, and electricity was a way to control people,” he said in an interview with Art News in 2012. Navarro creates stunning light sculptures that often comment on social issues. His 2002 piece You Sit, You Die is a lounge chair built from white fluorescent tubes, and it
Kinetic Complexity Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982, Christian Rosa was raised in Vienna. He claims he didn’t start painting until 2007 at age 25, but he began exhibiting in 2008 and had his first major gallery solo show in 2014. His works are largely monochromatic, featuring one element after another that feels like a response to an earlier element, similar to a jazz performer unfurling a solo where new notes build on previous ones. Rosa eschews brushwork in creating his paintings, which use oil, charcoal, resin and oil stick on canvas as media. The complexity of the connections between the elements of Rosa’s paintings is reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine, and overall this helps gives Rosa’s work a kinetic, captivating energy that draws viewers into his “machines” and allow the canvas to become a space where the imagination unfolds. HILTON MOMENTS