Elaine Navas Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Elaine Navas Art Value Price Guide

Feb. 22, 2025
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - Original Intention (After N. Araki)
Est: ₱900,000 - ₱1,170,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Original Intention (After N. Araki) signed and dated 2001 (lower left) oil on canvas 72" x 96" (351 cm x 244 cm) Provenance: Finale Art File The Calm before the Storm Navas Looks to the Sky by Jed Daya Elaine Navas is a visual artist known for her meticulous, almost meditative approach to painting—one that emphasizes texture, depth, and the physicality of paint itself. She first studied psychology at Ateneo de Manila University but was ultimately drawn to the world of art, leading her to pursue a second degree at the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts. Her journey as an artist took off with her first solo exhibition, Still Life, Still Spaces, at West Gallery. Navas often paints familiar, everyday objects, but her thick, impastoed layers of oil paint transform them into something almost sculptural. Her work doesn’t just ask to be seen—it invites touch, drawing the viewer into an experience that’s as much about feeling as it is about looking. This blurring of boundaries between painting and sculpture gives her pieces a presence that extends beyond the canvas, existing in a space that feels both tangible and immersive. In doing so, Navas challenges how we typically experience paintings, creating work that engages not just the eye but the whole body. Navas’ Original Intention (After N. Araki) feels like a quiet, textured tribute to Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. Araki is known for capturing raw, fleeting moments—intimacy, memory, and the passage of time—and Navas translates that same energy onto canvas with her thick, impastoed layers of paint. The swirling, cloud-like forms in monochrome feel both heavy and weightless, as if they’re caught between appearing and disappearing. The surface, marked with delicate imperfections, adds to that sense of impermanence, much like an old photograph slowly fading. In this piece, Navas isn’t just referencing Araki—she’s having a conversation with his work, blending the physicality of painting with the emotional depth of photography.
Leon Gallery
Nov. 30, 2024
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - The Remains of the Day
Est: ₱380,000 - ₱494,000
The Remains of the Day signed and dated 2009 (lower left oil on canvas 36” x 36” (91 cm x 91 cm) PROVENANCE: Private collection, Singapore Elaine Navas fosters a practice that foregrounds both sensuality and materiality. Originally graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University, Navas redirected her path toward the fine arts, later earning a degree from the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts. This formal pivot laid the foundation for her exploration of color, texture, and form, leading to a body of work that engages both the intellect and the senses. Navas debuted her artistic voice with her solo exhibition, Still Life, Still Spaces, at West Gallery, which offered viewers an early glimpse of her deft handling of texture and form. Her career swiftly gained recognition: she was awarded Honorable Mentions at both the 1995 Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards in Manila and the 2004 Philip Morris Singapore Art Awards—acknowledgments that cemented her emerging stature in the regional art scene. Her work transcends mere visual impact; the tactile quality of her layered surfaces invites viewers to encounter the painting beyond sight alone, fostering an immersive engagement with each piece. In this work, Elaine Navas exemplifies her characteristic use of thick, impastoed strokes to depict the ordinary with a sense of weight and presence. The painting, with its earthy palette and layered textures, captures the rugged, tactile quality of its subjects—what appears to be a collection of vegetables and produce suspended in plastic bags. By rendering these humble items with such careful layering and dense brushwork, Navas elevates them to a nearly monumental status. Her strokes echo the textures of the bags and the leaves, evoking a sense of physicality that invites the viewer to feel the painting as much as to see it. In this work, Navas draws our attention to the overlooked and the commonplace, transforming them into objects of reflection and quiet reverence, suggesting that beauty and depth can be found in the most unassuming of subjects. (Jed Daya)
Leon Gallery
Dec. 02, 2023
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - Red Parachute (diptych)
Est: ₱2,000,000 - ₱2,600,000
PROPERTY FROM THE PATRICK AND YOLANDA JOHNSON COLLECTION Red Parachute (diptych) signed and dated 2014 (lower right) oil on canvas 96” x 109” (244 cm x 277 cm) PROVENANCE: Finale Art File, Makati City EXHIBITED Finale Art File, After Sir, Makati City, July 5 - August 2, 2014 LITERATURE: Bunoan, Ringo and Elaine Navas. After Sir (Exhibition Catalog). Makati City: Finale Art File, 2014. Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same title at Finale Art File. Full-color illustration and painting description. WRITE UPHomage to Chabet’s Piero by RINGO BUNOAN In Roberto Chabet’s Piero, the artist reflects on the crisis of painting at the end of the 20th century through an assembly of his trademark materials and familiar objects. Created in 1999, the work is composed of painted plywood panels, the main material and metaphor of most of his installations since the 1970s. In Piero, they serve as the ground for a pair of raw plywood shelves, attached by metal brackets in such a way that they form a crack on the surface of the ochre landscape. Draped onto the plywood is an actual parachute, a recurring object in several of Chabet’s installations that stands in for his childhood memories of WWII. On the top corner, is an enlarged detail from Piero della Francesca’s Baptism of Christ, painted by Chabet’s former student Gerardo Tan – an unidentified male figure in the background, behind the central figures of Christ and St. John, who is taking off his tunic in preparation for his turn. Chabet’s choice of reference is deliberate: Piero’s Baptism of Christ is the artist’s earliest surviving work exemplifying his treatise on perspective. Using mathematical principles, he devised a grid system which enabled him to depict figures in proportion so that they appear in the painting as they are seen in real life. Chabet, on the other hand, aims for realism not by painting but by way of using actual objects. In his works, the object is both a “thing” and a “thing in itself,” referring to Immanuel Kant’s proposed distinction on how we perceive objects. In Chabet’s works, his objects function as both as the real and the unknowable - coded metaphors for a constellation of diverse sources from art history to literature, myth, as well as personal memories. The work was created for the inaugural exhibition of Yola Johnson’s Soumak in Makati City, which featured Chabet and Tan. It was also featured in Chabet’s historic survey of plywood works entitled To Be Continued, which toured Singapore, Hong Kong and Manila as part of the Chabet: 50 Years retrospective from 2011-2012. In 2014, a year after Chabet’s passing, artist Elaine Roberto-Navas, also one of his former students, who like Tan, has been the hand behind some of the painted components of his installations, paid a tribute to her mentor by painting a version of Chabet’s Piero, as part of her exhibition, After Sir. Elaine Navas’ latest solo exhibition titled After Sir at Finale Art File is a tribute to her mentor, Roberto Chabet. Both an appropriation and a commemoration of the late artist’s works, the exhibition recalls some of the anxious objects he has left behind—the red and white parachutes, the red neon basketball hoop, the battered wooden school desks, the deflated plastic globe, the cast-iron monay, and the multicolored ziggurats. For this exhibition, Navas selected images from Chabet’s archive and used them as a guide for her paintings. Like many other artists, she paints from photographs but what sets her apart is that she does not confine herself to the strictness of photorealism. Her distinctive use of impasto creates an intense physicality to her works. Instead of making faithful copies, she paints with abandon and transforms the flat images into sentient moving forms, quite in the same way as Chabet sets his everyday objects into paradoxical collisions through his ephemeral installations. Paint is alive in Navas’ works; it gains its own momentum as soon as she lays it on her canvas. Her pulsating brushstrokes have a frenetic energy all to their own. While uninhibited and unrestrained, her expressive and bold handling of paint also imparts a kind of familiarity and tenderness for her subjects. Her other works include portraits of artists in her community and paintings of things in her immediate environment, such as her children’s homework and toys, fruits in her kitchen, or the canopy of trees outside her window. She has also previously appropriated other artists’ images for her paintings, including Roni Horn’s River Thames and Michael Wolf’s bastard chairs. Navas studied Painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts (UPCFA) in the late 1980s under Chabet and since then, has been his close follower and friend. He curated several of her exhibitions, including her first major solo exhibition About Face at the Ayala Museum in 1997. In many ways, he was a father figure who provided his close students with constant guidance and support. His sudden death last year was an enormous loss for Navas and many of his former students at UPCFA who had to face life After Sir. (Reprinted from the catalog of the 2014 exhibition “After Sir” at the Finale Art File)
Leon Gallery
Oct. 21, 2023
Elaine Navas (b. 1964)
Est: ₱8,000 - ₱10,400
Untitled signed and dated 2021 (lower right) print 16” x 11 1/2” (41 cm x 29 cm)
Leon Gallery
Sep. 09, 2023
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - Untitled
Est: ₱400,000 - ₱520,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Untitled signed and dated 2018 (lower left) oil on canvas 48" x 72" (122 cm x 183 cm) Accompanied by a certificate issued by West Gallery and signed by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot How does one appreciate nature? Given how it exists in the world, is there a proper way to understand it? Is art an acceptable avenue or medium when it comes to appreciating nature? Numerous genres from Realism to Impressionism have had a long history of depicting and sharing the beauty of nature. But the development of technology, especially within the context of photography, videography, animation, etc… has painting become obsolete? Perhaps our now multifaceted understanding of nature should not be seen as a replacement for realism, but as a jumping off point for a brand new kind of philosophy. One that goes beyond seeing realism as a mere commodity, document, or artifact; but something closer to art’s more inherently transcendental claims. Such bold claims must first rest upon certain distinctions. Within this context, what then separates a photo of a collection of clouds. What separates this 2018 oil on canvas painting by Elaine Navas from a similar photo taken by a common smartphone? One could argue that perhaps it was the intention. Whereas while a photo is relatively instantaneous, a painting is one which may imply a prolonged sense of dedication or intent behind its creation. Such a position seemingly takes inspiration from the aesthetics developed by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy even argues that “What is precious to us in an author’s work is the labor of his soul and not the architectural structure in which he packs his thoughts and feelings.” Another argument would be that, in a world so focused on delivering and even finding ways of delivering and capturing things in the most detailed and cutting-edge way, Navas’ realism can be seen as delivering reality not as it is seen, but how it remembered, how it is felt, how it is experienced by us the viewer. The philosopher Nick Zangwill, in response to the notion that true aesthetic appreciation always requires factual or scientific knowledge, notes that such an epistemic condition may ruin or harm our appreciation of a thing. He cites clouds as an example. Wherein he notes that “the beauty of clouds is the beauty of things that look solid in a fluffy bouncy way.” The introduction of the true physical makeup during an act of appreciation in the sense that Zangwill puts it may harm or diminish the aesthetic experience of them. Thus in some cases, context, especially one distanced from aesthetics, may not be helpful to an experience. In Navas’ case, its imperfections, in its failure to accurately depict the world, we are able to view not clouds as they actually are, but through an aspect of aesthetic experience and beauty. The work’s unreality shows us more than meets the eye. (Jed Daya)
Leon Gallery
Jul. 29, 2023
Elaine Navas (b. 1964)
Est: ₱3,000 - ₱3,900
Man signed and dated 2021 (lower right) serigraph 11 1/2” x 16” (29 cm x 41 cm)
Leon Gallery
Oct. 22, 2022
Elaine Navas (b. 1964)
Est: ₱30,000 - ₱39,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Voice in the Head dated 1998 oil on canvas 24” x 18” (61 cm x 46 cm) PROVENANCE West Gallery, Quezon City
Leon Gallery
Dec. 04, 2021
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Never Go On Trips With Anyone You Do Not Love (After N. Araki)
Est: ₱300,000 - ₱390,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Never Go On Trips With Anyone You Do Not Love (After N. Araki) signed and dated 2011 (lower right) oil on canvas 72" x 48" (183 cm x 122 cm) each PROVENANCE West Gallery Elaine Navas is a visual artist known for her unique and methodical approach to art that emphasizes physicality and sensualness. Navas graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University, but decided to pursue a career in the arts by taking up a second degree at the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts. She mounted her first solo exhibit titled Still Life, Still Spaces at West Gallery. In 1995, she received an Honorable Mention at the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards in Manila, while in 2004, she received another Honorable Mention at the Philip Morris Singapore Art Awards. Among her most notable exhibits include Cotton Fiend in 1997 at the Lopez Museum in Manila, Standing Room Only in 2008 at Valentine Willie Fine Art Kuala Lumpur, Edible Paintings in 2009 at Utterly Art Singapore, and Little Monuments in 2019 at Finale Art File in Manila. Her works often feature everyday objects rendered in densely layered and impastoed oil. This technique allows her work to communicate itself not only in a visual sense, but also in a textural sense, allowing the viewer to engage with the work on a deeper level. This also means that Navas’ paintings also manage to break the barriers often ascribed to the genre of painting, and exist in a space in between the often flat canvases of paintings, and the more robustly physical aspects of sculpture and installation work. By existing in this seemingly gray area, Navas is able to communicate with the audience on not only a different level, but within a different environment and context as well.
Leon Gallery
Jun. 05, 2021
Elaine Navas (b. 1964)
Est: ₱300,000 - ₱390,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) Mamon (After MM Yu) signed and dated 2019 (lower right) oil on canvas 48” x 72” (122 cm x 183 cm) This piece is accompanied by a certificate issued by the artist confirming the authenticity of this lot A modern and contemporary painter, Elaine Navas obtained her Fine Arts degree from the University of the Philippines and also majored in Psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University. In 1994, she received the Juror’s Choice Award from the Art Association of the Philippines and was an honorable mention in the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards in 1995 and Singapore Art Awards in 2002 and 2004. Navas holds frequent exhibitions of her works in Manila and Singapore. Navas’ ability to breathe life to paint is highly commendable. Her colors seem to rise from inanimateness as soon as she flicks her brush on the canvas. Her paintings of everyday objects done in densely impastoed oil are characterized as having a feverish and striking quality. The Manila Times has remarked that her “paintings suggest an indefinable, hidden life within the object, and by extension, suggest the human relationship to objects around us: the way we invest meaning to objects and the way objects affect our psychological and emotional state.” The impetuous and unconstrained manner by which she handles her brush consolidated by her evocative impression leaves a sentiment of familiarity and intimacy with her subjects.
Leon Gallery
Nov. 28, 2020
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - Curtain Call (After Sam Kiyoumarsi)
Est: ₱600,000 - ₱780,000
Elaine Navas (b. 1964) - Curtain Call (After Sam Kiyoumarsi) signed and dated 2016 (lower right) oil on canvas Estimate USD : $12000-$15600 Estimate Euros : €10000-€13000
Leon Gallery
Mar. 14, 2020
Elaine Navas (b. 1964)
Est: ₱650,000 - ₱700,000
Dirty Laundry
Salcedo Auctions
Sep. 21, 2019
ELAINE NAVAS (B. 1964)
Est: ₱580,000 - ₱600,000
Four school desks and ship bells (Panel 1 of 2)
Salcedo Auctions
Dec. 01, 2018
Elaine Navas (b.1964) Blue Bed
Est: ₱200,000 - ₱260,000
Elaine Navas (b.1964) Blue Bed signed and dated 2013 (lower left) oil on canvas 36” x 48” (91 cm x 122 cm) Notable for her thick, rhapsodic impasto, in which the plasticity of paint registers the artist’s gesture, Eileen Navas has consistently pursued this painterly style in depicting a variety of subject matter — from the choppy waves of the sea to, in the case of this work, a snapshot of a bedroom. Here, the pleats and folds of the sheet (too large for the bed it covers) seem energetic, as though someone has just risen up and left in a rush. Seen from an oblique angle, the bed appears to be out of place in the room it occupies, emphasizing a feeling of being closed in, of claustrophobia. The walls and floor are painted in the same manner as the bed’s, but the looseness of the stroke’s points not only to a different material but absorption of light. The darkened bed is the gravitational center that holds the space around it, which makes this powerful painting not merely a depiction of domesticity, but the assertive force of objects animated by use.
Leon Gallery
Mar. 03, 2018
Elaine Navas (b.1964) Love Letters, after Sam Kiyoumarsi
Est: ₱400,000 - ₱520,000
Elaine Navas (b.1964) Love Letters, after Sam Kiyoumarsi signed lower right oil on canvas
Leon Gallery