Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, the Philippines) is a full-time artist photographer. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Communication Arts-Photography from De La Salle University, Manila in 2002. She was guided under Philippines' highly acclaimed contemporary artist and curator, Judy Sibayan. She has been awarded the Ateneo Art Awards 2006, for her outstanding work in a solo exhibition, Polysaccharide: The Dollhouse Drama, which traveled from Manila to Malaysia and the Netherlands.
STATEMENT For the unfamiliar, Frida Kahlo is possibly the most important Mexican artist to date and one of the most influential women artists in history. Wawi Navarroza's work echoes and reflects Frida Kahlo's spirit in her photographic works - dense with meaning, carefully arranged mise-en-scene and symbolic imagery. In her appropriations of Kahlo's pieces, she attempts to map out what she observes as 'the quarter-turn gaze' evident like a red thread running through every depiction of Frida in her self-portraits. She believes that it lends a special key into understanding Frida Kahlo.
She chose to photographically re-create Frida Kahlo's works to reintroduce the Mexican artist's obscured and less-popular paintings to the general public as Navarroza feels that the public eye needs to be re-familiarised with Kahlo's paintings specially now that her status in popular culture has led many to focus primarily on her as the persona/icon and seldom on the outstanding artworks themselves.
- Joselina Cruz
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