Denny Nava - Visions of Heaven: Folk Sculptures

Visions of Heaven: Folk Sculptures

By Denny Nava | December, 2006

Self-taught folk artist Denny Nava transformed the traditional Latin American art of santos - painted wooden sculptures of saints and angels - into a lively yet heartfelt statement of personal faith. With their serene, sweet faces and colorfully painted details, Nava's figures have been displayed in fine art galleries in his homeland of Venezuela and even as far away as the Vatican, which featured his work in its "Nativities of the World" exhibit. For more than ten years, Denny Nava has focused his talents on these wooden figures. His favorite subject is angels, but more recently, he has created figures that depict the different invocations of the Virgin Mary. He credits his dreams for inspiration, but he also integrates traditional motifs of his native coastal state of Falcon into designs with which he paints his figures.