Sergio Navarro-Duran

Sergio Navarro-Duran is a Colombian-born Graphic Artist based in San Francisco, California, a city that has been greatly inspiring for his latest work. Since his early days of design school he discovered his affinity and interest in “manual” illustration (pre-digital era) and the extent of applications this field had to offer. However, ink, -or the reign of carving shadows- seems to be an early and recurrent creativity channel in the artist’s journeys through his psyche. In most of his hand strokes there is an undeniable appeal for the human subject.

“American Indigenous culture has been a major drive for my current artistic channel. A view away from the classical European academic art, my work embraces the “art” that was being done long before 1492. An art that wasn’t art in the first place, since it wasn’t being done for the sole vain purpose of embellishment, but instead for the purpose of self-identity through an image. This is the first of all languages. The powerful mixture of balanced graphical order and symmetry in both buildings and objects of all sorts, as well as imagery, is in itself a remarkable achievement. It must have been incredible to live in a time where being an artist was an actual respected social position… no universities, no trends. Unadulterated from-the-ground-up thought. Graphic standards that came from instinct, not a class room or a movement, the openness of such spirit are the essence I celebrate in my work.”