Art by Robert Nava

Nava trained classically enough, a Yale MFA, technical skill by his own account comparable to Velázquez by his early twenties, that his mature style reads as a deliberate act of unlearning: raw, fast, childlike figures, sharks, dragons, angels, made with grease pencil, spray paint, and loose brushwork that looks almost effortless. He's said it took him a lifetime to learn how to draw like a kid again after years of technical training pulled him the other direction. One of his fastest paintings reportedly took 27 seconds to make. His 2019 auction debut piece sold for over four times its high estimate, and he's now represented by Pace Gallery.