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.

Inmortal
2007
769
1
archival digital C-prints
24.02h x 20w in • 61h x 50.80w cm
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Edition of 10 + 2 AP
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For You, After Nietzsche
2011
771
1
archival pigment ink print
45h x 30w in • 114.30h x 76.20w cm
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Editions of 7 + 1 A/P
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Self Portrait with Bricks (Autorretratro con ladrillos)
2012
774
1
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle, cold-mounted on acid-free aluminum, with artistʼs exhibition frame i.e. wood frame custom-tinted to WN skin tone
41.34h x 27.56w in • 105h x 70w cm
-1
0.00
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Edition of 5
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TERRARIUM nºXVI
2013
775
1
archival pigment ink on Hahnemüehle photo rag fine art paper
30h x 20w in • 76.20h x 50.80w cm
-1
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Editions of 5 + 2AP, signed verso
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TIERRA SALVAJE nºV
2014
776
1
photographs and ephemeral earth drawings (soil, sand, lava, chalk, charcoal, carbonates), archival pigment ink print on Hahnemühle museum paper
20h x 15.98w in • 50.80h x 40.60w cm
-1
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Edition of 8 + 2 AP
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"I Want To Live A Thousand More Years” (Self-Portrait After Dengue, with tropical plants and fake flowers)
2016
777
1
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle, cold-mounted on acid-free aluminum, with artistʼs exhibition frame i.e. double wood frame custom-tinted to WN skin
50h x 40w in • 127h x 101.60w cm
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Edition of 5 + 2 AP
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Untitled, after I Gak Murniasih “Dia Menggodaku / He Teased Me
2016
772
1
archival pigment print
20h x 30w in • 50.80h x 76.20w cm
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Edition of 5 + 2 AP
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Tabula Rasa
2017
773
1
archival pigment ink print on Hahnemühle fine art paper, mounted on acrylic support, framed
72h x 48w in • 182.88h x 121.92w cm
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Edition of 5
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May in Manila/Hot Summer (After Balthus, Self-Portrait)
2019
770
1
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle, cold-mounted on acid-free aluminum, with artistʼs exhibition frame i.e. wrapped fabric on double wood frame custom-tinted to WN skin tone
53.30h x 40w in • 135.38h x 101.60w cm
-1
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Edition of 5
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Selected Exhibitions

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