Wawi Navarroza
Bio
Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipina lens-based artist. Recognized as one of the foremost names in contemporary Southeast Asian art, she is known for her vibrant large format photographic tableaus and self-portraits which allude to the hybridity of identity, photography, and place.
Born in Manila, with higher education in the West, and moving between Madrid and Istanbul, Navarroza draws upon her transnational experiences to create in-studio collages using a variety of materials, mise en scène, and herself. Informed by tropicality within the context of post- colonial dialogue and globalization, and conscious of her role as a female artist, Navarroza employs her corporeal form as an artistic medium. Her body of work serves as a testament to the various facets and stages of the women’s narrative, portraying woman as creator.
Navarroza’s scenes and depictions emphasize the often overlooked power of symbolic allegory, folk memory, and imaginations of the exoticized “East” to create a rich visual lexicon of criss-crossing references and riddles. She champions textiles, ornament, domestic décor, the handmade, the mass-produced, the high-low, the vernacular and indigenous, as well as the cosmopolitan and the worldly. Captivated by the in-between, Navarroza blends the edges to define her signature tropical gothic.
Navarroza has received a number of awards such as the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant New York, Lucas Artists Fellowship Award for Visual Arts San Francisco, Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards, Ateneo Art Awards, Lumi Photographic Art Awards Helsinki, and a finalist for Singapore Museum Signature Art Prize, WMA Commission Hong Kong and Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Her work has been exhibited in museums internationally including the the National Museum of the Philippines, National Gallery Singapore, Hangaram Museum (Korea), National Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), Yogyakarta National Museum (Indonesia), Fries Museum of Contemporary Art & Museum Belvedere (Netherlands), Danubiana Museum (Slovakia), and in galleries in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, London, Spain, and Italy.
Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipina lens-based artist. Recognized as one of the foremost names in contemporary Southeast Asian art, she is known for her vibrant large format photographic tableaus and self-portraits which allude to the hybridity of identity, photography, and place.
Born in Manila, with higher education in the West, and moving between Madrid and Istanbul, Navarroza draws upon her transnational experiences to create in-studio collages using a variety of materials, mise en scène, and herself. Informed by tropicality within the context of post- colonial dialogue and globalization, and conscious of her role as a female artist, Navarroza employs her corporeal form as an artistic medium. Her body of work serves as a testament to the various facets and stages of the women’s narrative, portraying woman as creator.
Navarroza’s scenes and depictions emphasize the often overlooked power of symbolic allegory, folk memory, and imaginations of the exoticized “East” to create a rich visual lexicon of criss-crossing references and riddles. She champions textiles, ornament, domestic décor, the handmade, the mass-produced, the high-low, the vernacular and indigenous, as well as the cosmopolitan and the worldly. Captivated by the in-between, Navarroza blends the edges to define her signature tropical gothic.
Navarroza has received a number of awards such as the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant New York, Lucas Artists Fellowship Award for Visual Arts San Francisco, Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards, Ateneo Art Awards, Lumi Photographic Art Awards Helsinki, and a finalist for Singapore Museum Signature Art Prize, WMA Commission Hong Kong and Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Her work has been exhibited in museums internationally including the the National Museum of the Philippines, National Gallery Singapore, Hangaram Museum (Korea), National Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), Yogyakarta National Museum (Indonesia), Fries Museum of Contemporary Art & Museum Belvedere (Netherlands), Danubiana Museum (Slovakia), and in galleries in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, London, Spain, and Italy.
Selected Works
Selected Works
Selected Videos
Selected Exhibitions
Selected Press
- Prestige Hosts a Discussion with Collector Shane Akeroyd and Artist Wawi Navarozza at Art Basel’s Exchange Circle
- Wawi Navarroza’s Self-Portraits Contain Multitudes
- What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in February
- Photographer Wawi Navarroza’s US Debut Is a Feast of Maximalist Portraiture
- Worlds collide in Wawi Navarroza's first New York exhibit
- Comprehensive solo exhibition of self-portraits marks Wawi Navarroza's US debut at Silverlens
- Wawi Navarroza in conversation with Tony Godfrey
- How This Artist’s Perception Of The Female Body And National Identity Shaped Her Approaches To Art
- Conversation with Wawi Navarroza
- Wawi Navarroza eludes definition in her latest solo 'As Wild As We Come'
- Wawi Navarroza uses her body as her artistic medium
- “The Artist Is Now A Mother,” Wawi Navarroza On The Vulnerability And Joys Of Motherhood In The Artworld
- Wawi Navarroza and the unbearable strength of the female artist
- Wawi Navarroza on becoming a mother and artist: ‘As women, we can always come back to our power’
- Looking Out Is Looking In and Returning to Self for Artist Wawi Navarroza
- S.E.A. Focus: 4 Unmissable Booths
- Artists Talk: Wawi Navarroza in conversation with Jed Gregorio
- Arts & Culture: The Tropical Gothic & A Decade of Self-Portraiture, Wawi Navarroza on Muse and Memoir
- Wawi Navarroza's New Exhibit Proves the Importance of Self-Reflection
- A Filipino artist on the duty of photography