Meet the Curation Board: Manuel Navarro
Meet the Curation Board is a series that introduces the Art Blocks community to the board members and their backgrounds.
1. What is your background as it relates to art and design?
I grew up around fashion, art, and food through my mom and dad’s professions and interests, and to me, they are all related. My maternal grandparents owned a Scandinavian home furnishings and food store in Connecticut for many years, which contributes to my love of design objects and furniture, specifically chairs. I also have a bachelor’s and a master’s in Interior Design and have been practicing for over 15 years. In my day-to-day, I co-lead the Austin studio for an international interior architecture firm, where we predominately focus on workplace, retail, and hospitality interiors. Every day I am surrounded by amazing ideas, people, and products that allow me to be creative, have a sense of curiosity, and create solutions for my clients’ problems.
2. What is your background as it relates to crypto?
I owe all of my crypto education to SnowFro (Erick Calderon) and PixelPete (Peter Molick)! Erick gave me a CryptoPunk for Christmas about 3 years ago, and the rest is history 😉. I have been lucky to have worked with both Erick and Peter in my professional lives and share a common interest outside of that. I think the crypto world meeting the art market is fascinating and challenges the typical status quo in the traditional art world.
3. How would you describe your taste in art?
My taste in art is varied, but I lean more towards reductionist/minimal abstract works on one spectrum and figurative on the other. There are no blank walls left in my home, and I believe one can have visual rest when they shut their eyes. I buy what moves me and what I feel like I can’t live without. There is too much I like out there, but I love finding/supporting up-and-coming artists and watching their careers, and work evolve. I also try and get to know the artists and gallerists that I collect or make acquisitions from.
4. What got you interested in Art Blocks?
Seeing Erick light up with passion and energy when he spoke to me about Art Blocks is what got me interested. It’s incredible the doors he has opened for people to explore and test various generative ideas and the community that has been created to foster and facilitate a dialogue about the works.
5. When you review an Art Blocks project for curation, what qualities are you looking for?
When I am reviewing projects for Art Blocks, I am looking for the story/idea behind the works but also asking myself if it were a physical object, would I want to live with it? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Sometimes, the idea/story is really great, but the execution of the outputs isn’t in line with the narrative. To me, these need to be in sync and need to move you.
6. What is your overall vision for the curated collection at Art Blocks?
The curated collection at Art Blocks should exemplify and celebrate the best work and have a solid and passionate collector base.
7. Is there anything you hope to see in future projects?
The bar continues to rise every time we review new work, and it’s exciting to see how artists are pushing ahead and exploring new ideas. Maybe there can be some 3-dimensional manifestations of some of the work in tandem with the mints in the future.
