CMATO - October 2019

Empathy: Beneath the Surface was group exhibition presented at the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks (CMATO). The show was put together as a response to recent "twin tragedies" that occurred in the area - a deadly mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill and the devastating Woolsey wildfire. The theme aimed at "compassion and connection" with works that  encompassed "loss, resilience and hope." 

CMATO installation view with tapestries WMD (left), Stop the Dim Reaper (middle) and
Stop the Dim Reaper (Painting, right)

CMATO installation view with tapestry Perpetual War.

CMATO installation view with tapestries Regime Change Begins at Home (left) and One Nation Under Surveillance (middle). At right are t-shirts made by the museum of the ones depicted in the tapestries.

Coastal at Scape - July 2019

A scaled down version of the Coastal exhibition by John Nava and Jon Ng was shown at Scape, an exhibition space at Corona del Mar, California. 

Coastal - John Nava and Jon Ng - Paintings and Tapestries - April 2019

Coastal, a two-man show of works by John Nava and Jon Ng, was shown at the Orange County Center of Contemporary Art (OCCCA) in Santa Ana, California. In addition to paintings of California coastal images the exhibition included the large scale tapestry, Big Platter and new woven works by Jon Ng.

Big Platter | 18 x 74 inches | Oil on Canvas | John Nava 2015-16
Collection: Hilbert Museum of California Art

Detail: Big Platter | 18 x 74 inches | Oil on Canvas

Installation view with paintings by Jon Ng (left) and John Nava (right)

Installation view with John Nava painting (left) and Jon Ng tapestry (right)

Silvery Sea | Jacquard Tapestry | Jon Ng 2019

Detail from Big Platter

Vita Art Center - June 2018

An exhibition inaugurating the new Vita Art Center location on Main St. Ventura, California. The show featured the 27 foot long tapestry, Big Platter. 

Installing Big Platter

Beach Figure with Dog | Jacquard Tapestry | 84 x 21 inches | 2017 

Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Las Vegas, Nevada 2018

Holy Spirit Catholic Church opened June 22, 2018. Work on the project began in 2011. The project called for 9 large scale tapestries. Eight were for a series of "Stations of the Holy Spirit" - a unique theme depicting manifestations of the Holy Spirit from the old and new testament. This concept was developed by the client The 9th work was for a 20 x 10 foot tapestry for the main altar showing the Holy Spirit over the actual location of the church at the western edge of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Preparing installation June, 2018

Sacred Material

Sacred Material is a new book that covers the work I did as part of the new cathedral of Los Angeles that opened in 2002. The book tells how that work became a series of three major tapestry cycles: The Communion of Saints, The Baptism of the Lord and The New Jerusalem. Essays describe the conceptual approach to the cathedral artwork and how the actual making of the tapestries developed. Sacred Material also contains a hagiography contributed by Sr. Mary Joanne Wittenburg that outlines the stories of the saints depicted in the tapestries. An essay by Bruce Robertson, Director of the Museum of Art, Design and Architecture at UC Santa Barbara contextualizes the art of the tapestries. Fr. Richard Vosko, who was a key figure in the art planning for the cathedral, contributes a foreword to the book. 

The book is published by Angel City Press with design by Lentini Design and Marketing

https://www.angelcitypress.com/products/nava

Sample pages from Sacred Material

Painting and Tapestry at Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara

 Announcement image: Parasol | 2017 | 16 x 12 inches | Oil on Linen

A show of painted studies around a 27 foot tapestry inspired by Seurat's Grande Jatte. The shoreline scene depicts Ventura's promenade and is populated with figures along the beach near Surfer's Point. The texture of the tapestry is a mosaic of colored patches that refer to Seurat's pointillist touch that itself was derived from Jacquard weaving.

Installation at Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara CA, Nov-Dec 2017

Big Platter | 2017 | 87 x 330 inches | Jacquard tapestry

Figure with Parasol | 2017 | 74 x 30 inches | Oil on Canvas

Figure with Folding Chair | 2017 | 22 x 14.75 inches | Oil on Canvas

Emerging Surfer | 2017 | 61 x 29 inches | Oil on Prepared Paper 

EY (study) | 2017 | 49 x 29.5 inches | Charcoal on Canvas

Hoop | 2017 | 16 x 12 inches | Oil on Linen

Adams Portrait for the Yale School of Music

Portrait of Denise and Stephen Adams | John Nava 2016 | Oil on Canvas

Adams Portrait installed, Yale School of Music, January 2017