Past Exhibition

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

February 10 – April 20, 2014

Past Exhibition

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

February 10 – April 20, 2014

Three water towers, staples of the New York skyline, merge with the street-level landscape of the park in Ivan Navarro’s This Land Is Your Land. The exhibition title is from the beloved 1940 Woody Guthrie folk song, an American anthem and a vocal pull to the freedoms offered in this country for an immigrant population. The towers are elevated to a height above visitors’ heads, allowing them to walk underneath and look up into each sculpture to view the content within. Navarro’s water towers, each measuring approximately seven feet in diameter and standing on roughly eight-foot-tall supports, function as vessels for a vocabulary of the political and personal experience of immigration. The interior of one tower features the words “me” and “we,” another harbors the word “bed,” and a third displays the image of a ladder, each of which is composed in neon light. An internal arrangement of mirrors enables the neon to repeat perpetually. Navarro brings personal memory as a child during the brutal Pinochet regime in Chile and reflection ”on the freedoms of the American experience” to create This Land Is Your Land. The project tackles issues pertaining to social structure and how language can simultaneously manifest liberation and oppression.

About the artist

Iván Navarro (Chilean, b. 1972) was born in Santiago and lives and works in New York. He earned a BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago (1995).

The artist received Fondart Grant (1999) and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2006). He represented Chile at 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and has participated in residencies at Fundación Casa Wabi (2018) and CCA Andraxt (2019). Navarro’s works are included in the collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Read more about the artist
About the artist

Iván Navarro (Chilean, b. 1972) was born in Santiago and lives and works in New York. He earned a BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago (1995).

The artist received Fondart Grant (1999) and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2006). He represented Chile at 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and has participated in residencies at Fundación Casa Wabi (2018) and CCA Andraxt (2019). Navarro’s works are included in the collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Read more about the artist

About the artist

Iván Navarro (Chilean, b. 1972) was born in Santiago and lives and works in New York. He earned a BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago (1995).

The artist received Fondart Grant (1999) and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2006). He represented Chile at 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and has participated in residencies at Fundación Casa Wabi (2018) and CCA Andraxt (2019). Navarro’s works are included in the collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Read more about the artist
Exhibition Catalogue

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

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Download PDF
Press Release

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About the artist

Iván Navarro (Chilean, b. 1972) was born in Santiago and lives and works in New York. He earned a BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago (1995).

The artist received Fondart Grant (1999) and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2006). He represented Chile at 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), and has participated in residencies at Fundación Casa Wabi (2018) and CCA Andraxt (2019). Navarro’s works are included in the collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago; and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Read more about the artist

Image gallery

Photo: Pedro Pulido
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing
Photo: James Ewing

Exhibition Support

Major support for the art program is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Charina Endowment Fund, Liane Ginsberg, Agnes Gund, Toby Devan Lewis, Dorothy Lichtenstein, Sorgente Group of America, Tiffany & Co., and Anonymous. Substantial support is provided by the Irving Harris Foundation, The Sol LeWitt Fund for Artist Work, the Henry Luce Foundation, Danny and Audrey Meyer, Melissa S. Meyer, Ronald A. Pizzuti, The Rudin Family, the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust, John L. Thomson, Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch, and Tishman Speyer. Major exhibition support for Iván Navarro’s This Land Is Your Land is provided by Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York.

Delta Air Lines is the Official Airline of the art program. Ace Hotel New York is the Official Hotel Partner of the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Mad. Sq. Art is supported in part with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The Madison Square Park Conservancy is a public/private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

Iván Navarro: This Land Is Your Land

Exhibition Support

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