Valencia Trader

Sea of Art Exhibition at the IVAM

The exhibition entitled Mar de Arte (Sea of Art), at the IVAM until 8 January, is a journey through the history of navigation, focusing on, among other topics, the evolution of sailing boats and sailing equipment, such as anchors, navigational instruments, masts and hulls. The boats are depicted in various ways and in different places from ancient times to the present. The preciseness of the images, which describe the historical evolution of sailing boats, depends on cultural perspective and the technical capacity of the artists their respective eras.

The journey will take visitors though the history of navigational art and design, with stops along the way at Roman mosaics, amphorae, coins, engravings, cut stones, sculptures, scale models and paintings, from world renown museums and private collections.

The Miguel Navarro exhibit begins outside the gallery, where an aluminium and zinc city has been installed, called Solar (1992-1996). Climbing the staircase to the second floor of the museum, the visitor will notice the progressive and suggestive change in scale. The first exhibition hall contains a large selection of unedited work by the artist done in his early years, as well as his enamel paintings entitled Insectos y Larvas (Insects and Larvas) and colouristic of micro organisms. Volcanoes erupting, tidal waves and earthquakes, spirals, folds and creases and early urban typologies, all reveal a young Miguel Navarro who was fascinated by the energy and movement of the city.

In the second exhibition hall, the transformation of the human body in architecture is exposed. The display includes tiny bronze and terra-cotta figures, watercolours and monumental statues, recreating a kind of amphitheatre where corporal desire and the progressive transformation of the human body are shown. Warriors, phalli and totems are transfigured by Miguel Navarro to bridges, fountains and temples. In the third exhibition hall Miguel Navarro focuses on the essence of artistic language. His elementary forms and modules in metal and refractory elements, used to construct cities and monuments, reveal the concordant relationship of the various materials.

Finally, the fourth exhibition hall is dedicated to one of the indispensable subjects of the creative universe of Miguel Navarro: the moon. Symbol of fertile ancestry and femininity in most myths and agricultural rites, the moon is converted into a totemic lighthouse, the white luminance of which presides over and protects cities and the Miguel Navarro’s nights. His Sota la LLuna, (Under the Moon) (1987), glides through the centre of the hall along a metallic horizontality, which is a portico leading to the monumental Fluido en la urbe  (Urban Fluidity) (2003), depicting a large city of rusted iron colonnades that surround the exhibition.

IVAM. Centro Julio González
C/ Guillem de Castro 118
Valencia
Tel 963 863 000                            
Price: Adults: 2€; carnet jove: 1€; Children under 10, groups and pensioners: free.
Sundays (día del museo): Free
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00h to 20.00h.