Driving trucks to achieving an auction record of $717,008 USD
Exploring the science behind Robert Nava's artistic journey
Hi everyone,
Science of Art is a newsletter written by me, Shagun Singh. I deconstruct and analyze the careers of artists who support themselves solely through their art. I am a user researcher, designer, and public artist.
If you haven’t read my first post where I lay out the context for this post, you can read it here.
It's no secret that your chances of making it as an artist in a bustling place like New York City are quite different from trying to be an artist in a small town like Jarbridge, Nevada. We know that the location matters, but there's so much more going on beneath the surface. Is there a method to the madness of being a successful artist? Can we find some science behind the art of thriving in the creative world?
How am I planning to gather this information?
Thanks to a pretty long career in user experience design and research, I am pretty adept at burrowing into a problem from a user’s perspective and coming up with a hypothesis. These hypotheses aren’t always accurate but they are a starting point. My plan is to look at published research papers on creative careers by scholars, dig into the careers of successful artists, evaluate what has worked and not worked for my work at Urban Matter Inc. (my public art studio), talk to friends in creative careers, and generally indulge my curiosity. My motivation is to understand what are the drivers behind the ability to sustainably support oneself as a creative/artist.
Creating art is hard, it requires perseverance, tough skin, and being okay with financial ambiguity. Like any other business, the business of art is not a linear path, and has very little transparency.
While there's no one-size-fits-all formula for success, I believe that by understanding the journeys of artists who've already made it, we can unravel some of the secrets to supporting oneself through creative endeavors. At least, that's the theory I'm working with.
There are some high-level predictors of success as an artist. They're pretty straightforward, but it's worth mentioning them:
Creativity tends to thrive in places that value and support the arts. These are the spots with galleries, concert halls, and all things artistic. Being in these creative hubs can supercharge an artist's productivity. Just think about the explosion of visual artists in places like Paris and New York from 1850 to 1945.
Having famous artists in your neighborhood can rub off on aspiring ones. That's why places like New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco become magnets for creative folks.
Younger artists often outnumber the older ones. People tend to pivot or switch careers when they start families and need a steady income.
More art teachers in an area tend to produce a more educated crop of artists, leading to more artistic activity and creativity.
Contrary to what some might think, being a woman actually increases the chances of pursuing a creative occupation.
Your economic background plays a big role in deciding whether you'll take the creative path. Folks from less privileged backgrounds often hesitate to dive into art as a career.
There's a significant racial inequality issue in the art world, with not enough Black, Hispanic, and Asian artists getting their deserved recognition.
While these points give us a good idea of what makes or breaks an artist, it's also important to remember that the presence of creativity itself has an effect. Creative cities attract talented individuals, and this influx helps the city grow economically. It leads to innovation, wealth creation, and an overall bustling business scene. Art and the cities where it thrives have a mutually beneficial relationship.
I want to look at an artist example to understand their path and choices. While I plan to explore many different types of artistic endeavors in future posts, this one is about an artist who is ‘trending’ and falls into the genre of naive art in the ultra-contemporary art category which is in high demand by commercial art spaces and collectors.
An Artist called Robert Nava
I accidentally stumbled on Nava’s work while googling the artist Naudline Pierre who was showing at the Drawing Center at the time. I like to look up artists before I go see their work to have some context.
Robert Nava creates work that has a child-like quality. I could easily mistake his paintings for the familiar scribbles of my 6-year-old. But Robert Nava is not a 6-year-old, far from it, he is one of the most sought-after and prolific artists of our day. His work sells for thousands of dollars in the primary and secondary markets. I wondered how a painting that looked like it was drawn in haste by a child bring its creator such riches. There may be a few reasons.
Access and education
Even though only 10% of artists who have an arts degree make a living as an artist1, a reputable college can give an art graduate leverage by giving them access to a network of successful artists, gallery contacts, and art events.
Nava has a solid art education background, he attended an undergrad program in art studies at Indiana University Northwest where professors would tap into visiting artists from The Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University. He finished his studies at Yale where in his own words, he was pushed harder2.
A place that is Brooklyn
I spent the last 15 or more years of my life in Brooklyn. It is a melting pot of creativity. Nava rented a studio in Brooklyn. The urban environment including his graffiti-laden studio building inspired his raw style. Larger cities have infrastructures that allow artists have access to bigger audiences. The geographic clustering of artists also leads to a more productive and competitive environment. The size of the artists’ population also is directly proportional to the benefits artists have. Brooklyn is a creative hub with a concentration of extraordinary talent, and there are several dominant clusters of famous artists and creatives. NYC not only attracts creatives from the US but from all over the world. This type of agglomeration economy benefits the artistic activity and careers of all artists.
Polarizing art
How does someone on a journey to the end of taste become the most sought-after young artist on the market?3
Nava’s art is considered by many in the art world as juvenile and not worthy of the attention it has garnered. This has polarized the market. While some think that a Yale kid is getting away with gimmicky art, others genuinely value his creations. Here is what philanthropist Dow Jim has to say about Nava’s art.
…Last year, I was fortunate enough to acquire a large oil painting by Robert Nava, Chemical Shark (2022), from a gallery. I think only Nava can present a shark in such a colorful, bold, and powerful image using his own distinct style. I love the overall composition and scale of the painting. Love it or hate it. I love it!4
The polarizing nature of his work helps create conversation around it. From Reddit threads to art blogs, people are discussing his work.
Patience
After graduating from Yale, Robert moved to Brooklyn and didn’t show work for 6-7 years. He made ends meet by driving trucks and moving furniture. His truck series was a result of that experience. Having saved up enough to get some time to make art helped him produce more work and Instagram provided fuel to fire. He was eventually able to get some attention from a gallery in Brussels in 2018, and more galleries followed.
Robert started being represented by small galleries and appearing in group shows. This led to collectors frequenting these galleries and shows to collect Nava’s work and trade pieces amongst themselves. According to Nava, his big break came when a Puerto Rican gallery, Robert Paradiso showed his work at Expo Chicago in 2017.
Change in mindset
Robert talks about years of not showing his work, trying to make more work, and wanting to make a career happen, all while driving trucks. He loosened his grip on his career and things started to happen. He was able to ritualize his time and make work within time constraints.5
Earlier in his career, no one was showing Nava’s work, however, his Instagram was growing. He had sold two paintings and that bought him some time to create his truck series. As his Instagram was picking up steam, he was contacted by a gallery in Belgium, and things grew quickly from there.
Work live studio space and a cat
From what I could gather from various articles, Nava lives and works from his studio in Bushwick, which means he doesn’t pay for a separate studio space. Also no kids! So more money and more time. He does have a pretty cute cat called Jumanji.
The math behind it all
Nava’s work falls within the much sought-after genre of ultra-contemporary art. Most of his work has been sold in commercial spaces where such art is being increasingly collected and traded. Here is an excerpt from an article in Apollo magazine6:
…….The result is wide discrepancies between primary and secondary markets. Nava’s works, for example, were priced at $35,000 to $50,000 in early 2021 at a sold-out show at Pace in Palm Beach. At auction, his record – set for Frozen Bark (2021) – is almost £480,000.
For now, the market hasn’t corrected itself and his work is selling like hot cakes. However, a lot of this money is not going to Nava. Artists don’t get a slice when a collector makes a huge profit from the artists work at an auction. Hypothetically if Nava sells a piece for $50,000 through his gallery, he makes $25,000 (galleries usually take 50%). He is represented by over 15 galleries (according to Artsy), and his work is being widely collected for now, so he might be doing more than okay financially. But the market can change anytime. Famous artists can create robust markets for their type of art which can pave the way for other artists to use this trending aesthetic and see the prices of their own artwork rise.
Key insights
A lot of what we see here could be attributed to luck, but a lot are deliberate choices at play. Studying at Yale gave Nava exposure to critics from top institutions. Living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, gave him access to like-minded artists and the community, as well as the ability to pick up odd jobs to tide him through his phase as a struggling artist. He saved money by living and working in the same space, he doesn’t have dependents (I am speculating here), and he understood Instagram algorithms early on, though the existence of social media tools like Instagram is definitely serendipitous. He was able to develop the discipline to create art between his trucking shifts and stick it out before he caught a break when a gallery reached out to him after seeing his work on Instagram. The fact that he happened to catch the ultra-contemporary art wave is an added advantage.
Thoughts
Younger more experimental artists are selling their work way beyond their expected auction prices. New younger collectors from the tech sector are buying this work for investment or for the love of art. A long exhibition history, or shows at museums are not necessarily the only way to rise up the ladder. Art may not be changing, but the art market, distribution channels, and artists definitely are.
Learnings
There are many learnings from Nava’s career:
Start an instagram account and grow it religiously with high quality contacts.
Create Rituals: Figure out how to create work during scarcity of time.
Don’t take your career so seriously: This is easier said than done, but cognitive ease is a must for creative work. Be focused but not too focused. Figure out how to create art while keeping in mind the present day realities.
Show everywhere!
Disclaimer
I picked Robert Nava for this exploration because I find his artistic journey incredibly interesting and inspiring. It's worth noting, though, that Robert's journey as a white male artist may have some privileges that a female artist of color, with a similar skill set, might not experience. It's important to recognize that different backgrounds can shape artistic paths in unique ways.
If you would like to add to this discussion, please comment below. I would also love to know if you have an artist in mind you would like me to analyze, in which case, email me at shagun@urbanmatterinc.com or DM me on twitter.
Questions from my 6 year old
Every day while trying to think hard about what I need to get done during the day, my 6 year old will jolt me out of my head and ask me an unexpected question. Here is one from this morning.
Why does hockey need ice?
Until next time!
Shagun
http://bfamfaphd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/BFAMFAPhD_ArtistsReportBack2014-10.pdf
https://www.artandobject.com/news/robert-nava-unleashing-child-within
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/robert-nava-spring-intelligence-2021-1957022
https://news.artnet.com/market/what-i-buy-and-why-art-collector-dow-kim-2360332
https://www.emergentmag.com/interviews/robert-nava-and-edgar-serrano
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-market-for-young-artists/