Blogger’s Bio

Mario Naves

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I am an artist, critic and teacher. My art is a form of painting disguised as collage. My criticism abjures the marketplace for what meets the eye. My teaching encourages burgeoning artists to question just what it is exactly they’re getting into and how to do it well.

My work is represented by Elizabeth Harris Gallery in Chelsea.  It has been written about in The New York Times, Art in America, The New York Sun, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, ArtCritical.com, Abstract Art Online and other venues. I have been the recipient of awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, The E.D. Foundation, the George Sugarman Foundation, The National Academy of Design and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

My writing has been published in Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Sun, Smithsonian, ARTS Magazine, New Art Examiner, Tema Celeste and The New York Observer, where my column, “Currently Hanging”, appeared on a weekly basis from 1999-2009.  I currently write reviews of contemporary art for The New Criterion.

I have taught and lectured at Cooper Union, The New York Studio School, The National Academy of Design, The Henry Street Settlement, Montclair State University, The New York Public Library, The Art Directors Club, The Ringling College of Art and Design, Rutgers University and the University of Utah, where I was named a distinguished alumni in 2010. I currently teach at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College and Hofstra University.

You can read critical responses to both my art and my writing here. James Kalm’s interview with me can be found here.