21/07/2026
Thank you Grace Jiajing
’offcielShiZhuang
Panamanian Artist :
Eduardo Navarro
by 彭秀梅
Eduardo Navarro:
Living Fearlessly Through Art
He buried his beloved horse when it died—only to later exhume its bones and keep them in his studio. He paints with fire and once nearly set his workspace ablaze. For Eduardo Navarro, art has never been separate from life; it is life, lived intensely and without restraint.
Eduardo Navarro is a Panamanian visual artist and sculptor, and one of the distinctive voices of contemporary Latin American Expressionism. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, and performance art, his practice is defined by bold gestures, vibrant colour, and a raw, almost untamed energy that explores freedom, instinct, spirituality, and the complexities of the human experience.
His artistic career spans more than five decades. In 1994, he received the International August Salon Award from the Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation in Colombia, followed by the Bronze Prize at the Osaka Triennale in Japan in 1996. His works have since been exhibited internationally across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. In 2019, he was invited to participate in Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York, where he developed Coocons—a conceptual body of work inspired by ideas of protection, transformation, and symbiotic existence.
Entirely self-taught, Navarro has spent his life learning through experimentation. He has trained horses, cast bronze sculptures, painted with fire, and embraced the unknown in every creative pursuit. Each artwork is not merely created—it is lived.
In May 2026, Navarro joined fellow Panamanian artist Gabe Wong for Galloping Beyond Horizons at Gallery NaWei in Singapore. Centred around the horse as a powerful symbol, the exhibition reflected his enduring exploration of freedom, strength, and spiritual rebellion.
More than thirty years after his first visit to Singapore, Navarro returned at the invitation of Gallery NaWei’s curator, Jenny Zhu Hui Min. What captivated him most was the city’s harmonious balance between nature and civilisation. To him, Singapore’s lush greenery is not wilderness—it is life that has been thoughtfully understood and nurtured.
Raised in the countryside of Panama, Navarro grew up alongside horses. The first horse he painted was a black-and-white Peruvian Paso, captured with one foreleg lifted proudly against a dark background. Since then, horses have become a constant presence in his artistic language—not simply as subjects, but as companions and symbols of nobility, endurance, and freedom.
When his beloved horse passed away, Navarro buried it before later preserving its skeletal remains in his studio—a deeply personal tribute to a lifelong bond. He believes that without horses, human civilisation would have evolved much more slowly. To him, they embody strength, grace, and humanity’s enduring relationship with nature.
Navarro does not work from elaborate plans. Family, emotions, physical experiences, and life’s unspoken burdens naturally find their way onto his canvas. Inspired by the intense tropical sunlight of Panama, his colours emerge instinctively—radiant, powerful, and alive. Working on tapestries and richly textured fabrics, his expressive horses seem to gallop beyond the boundaries of the canvas itself.
Fire occupies a unique place in his creative practice. During his first experiment with fire painting, the flames leapt onto the roof and nearly destroyed his studio. By preserving the burnt textures with varnish, he discovered an unrepeatable artistic language—one he describes as “the fire of life.”
Without formal academic training, Navarro believes he was never confined by artistic conventions. His instinctive approach has become the foundation of his distinctive visual vocabulary.
His studio, located in an industrial district near the Panama Canal, is both workshop and playground. Paint stains the walls and floors. There, he continually experiments with materials and techniques. He also creates bronze sculptures in foundries filled with heat, metal dust, and chemical fumes, working with acids to achieve unique patinas. For Navarro, art is a physical and transformative process—dangerous, slow, and never entirely within one’s control.
Most recently, Eduardo Navarro was honoured by the National Assembly of Panama with a Special Recognition Award for his outstanding contributions to Panamanian culture and his lifelong dedication to preserving and promoting the nation’s cultural identity.
For an artist celebrated for his wild horses, blazing colours, bronze sculptures, and expressive energy, this honour not only recognises more than fifty years of artistic practice, but also affirms his place as one of Panama’s most distinguished cultural ambassadors.
爱马离世，他埋了又挖出来。用火作画，他差点酿成火灾……
