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 centers around the topic of identity. Trained as a fashion designer and photographer, Navarro studied at the University of Buenos Aires and completed the certificate program in photography at Houston Center for Photography. Her constructed portraits are known for the use of color theory, surreal scenes and minimalist details. In 2018, Navarro was the recipient of the Glassell School of Art scholarship from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and most recently she has received the Artadia fellowship 2019.
Navarro's work has been exhibited in the US and abroad. Selected shows include Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH); Lawndale Art Center, Houston, USA; Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin, USA; Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, USA; Gray Contemporary, Houston, USA; Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Houston Center for Photography, Houston, USA; and Museo de la Reconquista, Tigre, Argentina. Her work has been seen in billboards around Houston and has been published in multiples magazines like Create Magazine, SPOT Magazine, Aint Bad, Lenscratch, Vogue Italia, Curated by Girls, and PHmuseum.
Inspired by an insatiable curiosity about understanding the self and the role of social norms in the construction of personal and social identity, Karen Navarro’s artistic practice approaches the topic of identity in multiple ways. Her image-based photography, collages, and sculptures express self-referential questions that aim to connect to ideas of the social construction of reality. In her work, Navarro purposely obscures typical signifiers of person and place to initiate a conversation with the viewer and question our preconceived notions.
