Art Madrid'24 – Miquel Navarro – Casa Oblicua (2023)
about Miquel Navarro
Mislata (Valencia), 1945
Miquel Navarro is one of the most important representatives of what is known as New Spanish Sculpture. He studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia and has been awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas and the Premio Nacional de la Asociación de Críticos de Arte ARCO 95, among others. He is also a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and his work can be found in countless museums, collections and major European cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, Valencia, etc. It is worth mentioning his extensive presence in numerous museums and collections of great calibre such as: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, Musée National Centre d'Art Georges Pompidou Paris, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Reina Sofia, Ivam, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Sofia Imbert Caracas, Museo Wurth Künzelsau, Museo Lehmbruck Duisburg, Macba, Meiac, Mie Prefectural Art Museum Mie in Japan, Joseph Suñol Foundation, Lambert Foundation Brussels, Bank Sabadell Collection. As well as the recent creation of his own foundation with the aim of preserving his legacy, promoting the knowledge and dissemination of his work and his figure while encouraging the creation and conservation of cultural heritage.
about the artist's works
Miquel Navarro's work is totally linked to his biography, as the memories of his childhood are decisive in shaping the work of this sculptor, where among the human figures and phallic symbols there are also chimneys from old factories and architectural elements that refer to the landscape he saw as a child. His childhood in Mislata, a town where there was a mixture of agricultural and industrial elements, and at the same time the contrast between the rural environment and the city of Valencia, are totally identifiable throughout his career, as is the use of clay, a material he continues to use in his cities, whose buildings are also made of iron, steel and aluminium. Always tireless, universal and constantly evolving, this singular artist works out of pure creative passion and ensures that he maintains the need to create. He specialises in the creation of sculptural landscapes, cities, installations and assemblies of small variable elements that combine sculpture and architecture from different languages, to lead us, through a variety of creative paths, towards unique aesthetic emotions. All of this is participated with different materials such as clay, lead, zinc, glass, stone, plaster and steel, which give the whole a sensuality of Mediterranean order, crossed with certain conceptual winks, and which, in many cases, exude a deep, almost primitive eroticism.