NYAB Event - Iván Navarro Exhibition

Iván Navarro Exhibition

Paul Kasmin Gallery

This event has ended.

Iván Navarro's work, constructed mainly out of fluorescent tubing and electrical materials, transmits social and political commentary in a functional, complex and visually stunning sculptural format.

"Die" (2009) is the second of Navarro's sculptures to respond to the American sculptor Tony Smith's famous six-foot steel cube, "Die" (1962). Smith's sculpture was designed to match human scale; he claimed that anything larger would be a monument and anything smaller an object. In 2006, Navarro made a twelve-foot black cube titled "Die Again (Monument for Tony Smith)." From the outside, "Die Again" is a massive black cube made of steel and plywood. A door-like entrance on the surface invites the viewer to enter the structure, whose interior is filled with lights, mirrors and sound.

"Die" (2009) is a four-foot plywood black cube. In accordance with Smith's statement, it appears as more of an object. Although the piece is hollow, its mirrored inside allows viewers to look down through a virtual space that extends beyond the actual material boundaries of the cube and into an illusory hole plunging deep into the earth. This spatial effect is produced by a neon light that is installed between a mirror on the floor and a one-way mirror on the top of the cube.

Iván Navarro was born in 1972 in Santiago, Chile, where he grew up under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. From 1991 to 1995 he studied art at the Universidad Católica de Chile, graduating with a degree in printmaking. In 1997 he moved to New York where he continues to live and work. His work has been shown at the Whitney Museum in New York; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; MOCA, Miami; the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks; SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Prague Biennale 2, Prague; Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris; Towner, Eastbourne; Distrito Cuatro, Madrid; Adelaide Festival, Adelaide; Museo Nacional de Arte, Lima; Centro Cultural Matucana 100 and Galería Metropolitana, Santiago. Iván Navarro was also chosen to represent Chile in the 53th Venice Biennale, 2009.