Cloud Rider Angel, 2020
Acrylic and grease pencil on canvas
85 x 73 inches (215.9 x 185.4 cm)
© Robert Nava. Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery
Robert Nava lives with angels. They occasionally appear in the form of winged people in his dreams or find other ways to hint at their presence in his third-floor Brooklyn studio. More than anything, however, the angels inhabit his paintings. They are flamboyant, bold, and radiant with energy bursting through their flirtation with abstraction. Their halos are simple circles; their swords, a thick line of paint. Their bodies morph into scribbles and splashes of bright tones as if they move at the speed of light or appear in the blink of an eye.