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Gabriel Navar's Poetry and Paintings
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I am a professional California artist, poet and college arts educator originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. I am fully engaged in my work and dedicated to producing provocative, relevant, figurative work with a "pop-Latino-surrealist-socio-political sensibility" as well as a "web-based awareness". As I have said, my image making with words and colors are truly all about the urgency for making images with materials and about this great human drama we are currently living !
"Upcoming Art Exhibitions and Activities for 2012"
I have been honored by being invited to participate as a visual artist in the following exhibitions for 2012: A two-person exhibition at Joyce Gordon Gallery, in Downtown Oakland, California "Pay It Forward: Mel Ramos and Gabriel Navar"; "We Are You International Project" traveling group exhibition begining in New York City and traveling through the USA, Latin America and Europe. Read more about it in my exhibition page...
This website was created because I wish to make my paintings and poems available to the world. What you will be able to view here are a select number of paintings and poems that I have created for almost the last 20 years. You will also be able to view past projects and collaborations that I have been involved in. Also, you will be able to view and read past exhibition reviews, my bio, résumé and art statement.
Any authentic artist knows in their mind, heart, in their blood, that an artist does what they do because they must. The work that I have been working on over the last few years comes from the awareness and spirit of knowing that we live in difficult, "dark" times. I draw, paint, and write in a sort of spontaneous, "stream-of-consciousness" way where my pre-occupations are varied, yet include current events, consumer culture, relationships, social-political-follies, disasters, spiritual matters, as well as issues that have to do with the prevalence of technology ("connectiveness", "relevance", "updatedness", etc.) in most of our lives. My "topics" are varied and include "miraculous apparitions", "makeovers gone wrong", spoils of war, "becoming" part of the natural environment, "over-stepping" one's carbon footprint, and so on and so on.
The platform that I have been utilizing thematically in my work over the last several years has had a conscious awareness and relationship to the on-line environment, including browser window, references to web giants such as e-bay, facebook, twitter, and, most specifically, youtube.
Within this framework, I have been completely free to explore a myriad of subjects that have interested me, in one way or another, since I began painting and writing poetry back in 1989. I have had many influences and sources of inspiration from poets, Latin American authors, painters. Perhaps those that have made the greatest impact on my work, especially in my early years, include the writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, musicians The Cure, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Soda Stereo, and the art and art styles that include Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Mad magazine, San Francisco Bay Area muralists, surrealism, metaphysical art, pop art, and expressionism.
I have been very fortunate, I must say, that I have had great support from friends and family, especially my parents who always encouraged my artistic and academic endeavors. My former art professor and fellow artist Mel Ramos has been my greatest mentor since the days when I was a college undergraduate student at Cal State University, Hayward (now known as Cal State University, East Bay). More than any other, Mel encouraged and demanded that I pursue art and higher education... I followed his advice and went on to earn my Masters in Fine Arts at San Jose State University.
Speaking of being fortunate, I have been blessed over the year with having the great opportunity of collaborating with Dr. Paul Basler on Cantos Alegres, Dias Divinos, Embrace Creation. Basler composed choral music to many of my poems which have been performed thousands of times all over the world. Furthermore, I've had opportunities to work with and exhibit my work at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, MACLA in San Jose, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco, UCSB and, since 1996, Galerie B. Haasner in Germany.