(de)constructed Artist Spotlight: Karen Navarro
(de)constructed:
KAREN NAVARRO
A row of small, colorful portraits by Karen Navarro hangs in the back gallery space by a larger fragmented sculptural portrait. Each portrait is sliced into shapes, obscuring the identities of the original subjects. The two featured bodies of work center around ideas of identity and belonging, especially as they relate to a digital world. The broken, rearranged surfaces of Navarro’s portraits reference the multitudes surrounding our contemporary perceptions of self and community.
The small portraits come from the series, El Pertenecer en Tiempos Modernos (Belonging in Modern Times):
Belonging is intrinsic to our humanity and integral to our understanding of ourselves. While the need for community transcends time, the means to develop one's “tribe” has transformed from the physical to the digital realm and has subsequently impacted how we view ourselves in this interconnected world. Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, that value the visual image above all, have altered our sense of self and the very mechanisms for how we develop our external and internal identities and to which groups we belong.
This series explores social media platforms and examines their role in how we present ourselves, as well as how we externally validate our identity online. Inspired by the Cubist investigation of materiality and perspective, Navarro creates collaged portraits of subjects who utilize these platforms as a way to amplify the layers distancing the subjects’ IRL selves from their constructed selves online—underscoring the mutability of identity in the digital age. The individuals photographed were selected by an open call on social media platforms and were asked to wear a specific color clothing based on the colors of the logo of the social media they were contacted from. Embossed on the paper are the words of popular hashtags. Acting as an invisible tattoo, these words are aspirational, a call to wear the seal of the virtual tribe you wish to belong to.
The large, sculptural, resin portrait comes from the series, The Constructed Self, which explores themes of identity and self-representation through the use of text and unconventional portraiture.
Using digital photography as a foundation, Navarro transforms traditional prints into three-dimensional objects by cutting and incorporating tactile elements such as wood, paint, and resin. The labor-in-tensive techniques Navarro applies to create these sculptural objects not only allow for a physical deconstruction of the images but also become a form of meditation that reflects her efforts in trying to reconstruct and make sense of one’s own identity.
Like a puzzle, Navarro’s identities intersect, coming together to construct a multiple sense of Self. Although Navarro does not appear in the pictures , she sees the works as self-reflective and it's very important to show the diversity within her models. As an immigrant from Latin America and a descendant of Indigenous Peoples from the South, Navarro feels the need to celebrate diversity to reframe the representation of historically marginalized identities.
Some of the pieces that make up these dimensional portraits can be rearranged and displayed in various ways to express the notion that identity is a social construct. At once colorful, surreal, and minimal, Navarro’s constructed portraits invite the viewer to challenge their own perceptions and biases, by highlighting the complexities that make up who we are.
Karen Navarro is an Argentine-born multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in Houston. Navarro works on a diverse array of mediums that includes photography, collage, and sculpture. Her image-based work and multimedia practice investigate the intersections of identity, self-representation, race, gender, and belonging.
Navarro has a background in fashion design and completed the certificate program in photography at the Houston Center for Photography. Her constructed portraits are known for pushing the boundaries of traditional photography, the use of color theory, surreal scenes, and minimalist details.
Navarro has won numerous awards and grants for her mixed-media photography, among them the Artadia Fellowship, the Top Ten Lensculture Critics' Choice Award, and the HCP Beth Block Honoraria, and has been shortlisted for several more, including the Photo London Emerging Photographer of the Year Award and The Royal Photographic Society, IPE 163. Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad. Selected shows include Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), USA; Galerija Upuluh, Zagreb, Croatia; Holocaust Museum Houston, USA; Artpace, San Antonio, USA; Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Houston Center for Photography, Houston, USA; and Museo de la Reconquista, Tigre, Argentina. Navarro’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including ARTnews, The Guardian, Observer, Rolling Stone Italia, and Photo Vogue Festival Italia.
(de)constructed will be on view at Candela Gallery through February 19, 2022.