Karen Navarro is an Argentinian artist based in Houston, of Mapuche, Guaraní, and European descent. Working across photography, collage, and sculpture, her practice examines the intersections of identity, race, representation, and belonging through the lenses of migration, Indigenous identity, and the enduring legacies of colonization. Through processes of fragmentation, reconstruction, and circulation, Navarro approaches images as unstable sites of meaning, tracing how visual and material cultures are shaped by—and reproduce—structures of power. Her work foregrounds the tensions between visibility and erasure, producing visual counter-archives that resist fixity and singular narratives while insisting on the persistence of Indigenous presence.

Navarro is the recipient of the Artadia Fellowship (2019), the Top Ten Lensculture Critics’ Choice Award, and the Houston Center for Photography Beth Block Honoraria, and has received Individual Artist Grants from the City of Houston’s Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (2022-2026). She has undertaken residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2024), PAC Art (2026), and the residency at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art / The Momentary (2026). Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad: Selected shows include Zona MACO, in collaboration with Big Medium, and exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, which included a catalog with a critical essay, Artpace, San Antonio; Galerija Upuluh, Zagreb, Croatia; George Washington Carver Museum, Austin, TX; FAR Center for Contemporary Arts, Bloomington, IN; Holocaust Museum Houston; and Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Additionally, Navarro’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including ARTnews, The Guardian, Observer, and Rolling Stone Italia.

Her work is held in prominent private collections internationally and in major public art commissions across Houston’s airport system.