Diego Narvaez

Diego Narvaez was born and raised in Mexico City. His artistic practice centers on painting and drawing. Narvaez works from plein air experiences to create natural and urban landscapes. Through his art, he reflects on how we construct reality through sight and how the environment influences our perception.

  • Like a Flaneur, Diego would get lost in non-places of Mexico City, where he realized that memory and oblivion are central in the construction of reality. This reflection first materialized in the painting series Landscape in Transformation, which was presented in the Anahuacalli – Diego Rivera Museum (2014). These paintings already show a mysterious element appearing in the middle of Mexico City: ice.

The unexplainable passion for frozen landscapes pushed him to participate in artistic residencies in Antarctica and Iceland. These valuable polar experiences molded Diego ́s creative process and the way he understands landscapes. After seven years of work, several polar series where summarized in the exhibition Ineffable Visions presented in the Cultural Center of the Contemporary Mexico.


Narvaez’s quest for understanding landscapes led him to win the first prize of the most important landscape biennial in Mexico (National Landscape Painting Biennial Luis Nishizawa, 2017). More recently, one of his paintings was recognized at the XIX Tamayo Painting Biennial, the most important painting awarded exhibition in Mexico. On three occasions, Narvaez received the support of the Young Creators Program (2010, 2013 and 2017) granted by Mexico ́s Ministry of Culture to work on projects that resulted in his most important series. Collectively, he has participated in exhibitions in USA, Argentina, Canada and Mexico.

In 2017, he embarked on his newest project of the North American West Coast. Mesmerized by the immense natural beauty, he and his partner permanently moved to Vancouver Island in 2019. Diego created the series Counterpoint Place with the support from the National Creators System, a grant awarded by the Mexican Ministry of Culture through FONCA (2020-2023). It’s worth mentioning that two paintings from this group of work have been honoured by the Sooke Fine Arts Show with the Award of Excellence (2019) and Juror’s Award (2020).


He is steadily building his career in Canada by exhibiting solo shows at Fortune Gallery in Victoria and the Art Rental and Sales program at the Vancouver Art Gallery. He has also participated in several collective exhibitions. His work represented by Abbozzo Gallery in Toronto, AR&S in Vancouver and Ashdale Gallery in North Vancouver. In recent years he has collaborated with ocean scientists, indigenous artists and local communities.