Navas describes her practice as an exploration of the genealogical lineage of objects, tracing their origins and subsequent influences.
2025 Biennial Year Find out more
Ana Navas was raised in Caracas, Venezuela and is currently based in The Netherlands. Navas studied Fine Arts at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, where she continued as a Meisterschülerin under the guidance of Franz Ackermann from 2010 to 2011. She has participated in several artist residencies, including De Ateliers in Amsterdam, NL (2012–2014), Goethe-Institut in Salvador de Bahía, BR (2016), Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, FR (2017), Escuela FLORA ars + natura in Bogotá, CO (2018), and Fondation Fiminco in Romainville, FR (2020), among others.
Navas’ work has received numerous recognitions, including the Illy SustainArt Award at ARCOmadrid (2022), the NN Art Award at Art Rotterdam (2020), the Kalinowski Prize from the Stiftung Kunstfonds (2018) and has been widely exhibited across Latin America and Europe. Recent exhibitions include “A Veil as a Glaze” (solo show, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, NL, 2024), “Various Others” (duo show with Maddy Arkesteyn, gallery Sperling, Munich, DE, 2024), “Mano a Mano” (duo show with Toon Verhoef, galleries Onrust and tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam, NL, 2024), “Reproductive Matters” (group show, Künstler:innenhaus Bremen, DE, 2024), “When Things Are Beings” (group show, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL, 2023) and Ana Navas is currently showing “Amuleto”, (Galería Crisis, Lima, Peru, 2025).
Navas describes her practice as an exploration of the genealogical lineage of objects, tracing their origins and subsequent influences. Her work examines how art can be understood outside of its traditional context, searching for overlaps and transformations between disciplines such as design and ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture.
Navas’ glassworks have been produced at MAKE Eindhoven. With special thanks to Oude Kerk Amsterdam.
Ana Navas is represented by tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam; Sperling, Munich; Crisis, Lima; Pequod Co., Mexico City; and abra, Caracas.
Liverpool Biennial 2025
'Passion Flower', 2025
Ana Navas’ art practice is rooted in research through which she explores the genealogy (the origin and development history) of objects and images. Her work vividly illustrates how our personal history, time, and surroundings invariably shape our worldview, and demonstrates how we often project familiar ideas onto unfamiliar images or objects in order to make sense of them. Navas’ ‘glass collages’ are at once figurative and purposefully abstract, inviting us to take alternative readings and make new connections.
Here in the Lady Chapel, the artist presents a series of these glass collages which are akin to glass paintings. The works draw inspiration from the colours and forms found in the clothing and objects depicted in portraits of women from
Ana Navas’ art practice is rooted in research through which she explores the genealogy (the origin and development history) of objects and images. Her work vividly illustrates how our personal history, time, and surroundings invariably shape our worldview, and demonstrates how we often project familiar ideas onto unfamiliar images or objects in order to make sense of them. Navas’ ‘glass collages’ are at once figurative and purposefully abstract, inviting us to take alternative readings and make new connections. Here in the Lady Chapel, the artist presents a series of these glass collages which are akin to glass paintings. The works draw inspiration from the colours and forms found in the clothing and objects depicted in portraits of women from throughout art history. Among these pieces, made whilst on residency at MAKE Eindhoven and originally presented at Oude Kerk in Amsterdam – an ancient church and art space –, Navas includes a newly commissioned glass and textile work which draws inspiration from the embroideries made by generations of women from Liverpool that are held in the Cathedral’s archive. In the context of the church, glass has a spiritual and ethereal association. The artist refers to the abstract glass figures as ‘ghostly’ or ‘absent bodies’ – bodily forms composed of textiles, background patterns, and accessories. Earlier works presented here were produced at MAKE Eindhoven and are supported by Mondriaan Fund. ‘Passion Flower’ is commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, with additional support from Fundación EACHEVE. Showing at Liverpool Cathedral
'Passion Flower', 2025
Showing at Liverpool Cathedral
Mon-Fri 10am-4pm; Sat-Sun 10am-5pm-
Ana Navas, ‘Passion Flower’, 2025. Liverpool Biennial 2025 at Liverpool Cathedral. Photography by Mark McNulty.
