Between art or fashion, shoe designer Sara Navarro (Elda, 1957) is clear: he keeps both. ‘Art as inspiration‘ is perhaps his most special collection. In it, the woman from Alicante has brought together a total of 53 works of art acquired over 30 years, and nearly a hundred of her most emblematic designs. All in an exhibition that can be visited until June 25, 2023 at the Gravina Fine Arts Museum (Mubag) in Alicante.

It is the first time that this museum hosts an exhibition like this. But, it is also the first time that Sara Navarro presents her private art collection to the public, a life project that has always been linked to the creation of her designs. “I bought my first work of art, –a drawing by Hernández Pijuan-, with my first salary when I was 17 years“, Explain.

For the designer, it is important to highlight that the footwear industry also supports art, its artists, but also the professionals who work in galleries. For this reason, she has chosen the cradle of footwear, to show the world some of its most precious treasures. “Alicante is an exporting province, not only of this, but of creativity“, Add.

Begoña Deltell is the curator of this contemporary art exhibition, which includes artists of the stature of Antoni Tápies, Eduardo Chillida, Pablo Palazuelo, Jaume Plensa, Equipo Crónica, Alfonso Albacete, Guinovart, Jannis Kounellis, Lucio Muñoz, Rafols Casamada, Yutaka Mori, Max Pam, Joan Miró, Alexanco, Hernández Pijuan, Nicola de María, Jus Juchtmans and Arnulf Rainer, Fuencisla Francés and Pamen Pereira, among others. Also noteworthy is the presence of several gallery owners, represented by works selected by the designer herself. “What I would buy if I had to add a work to my collection right now“, account.

As for the money that the designer has invested in art throughout her life, she did not want to give an exact figure out of “respect.” But, she says that he would spend “millions if he had them”.

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‘Art as inspiration. Sara Navarro’ Collection begins at the entrance to the Mubag, where a aerial installation by Pamen Pereira welcomes us with some shoes from the ‘Once upon a time’ collection in a scene reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz. “Shoes are like the caretakers of the forest, watching out for the birds to go to freedom“. He describes Pamen Pereira as one of his favorite artists of the moment.

In the first room there are several of these works, but Sara Navarro highlights one above the others: ‘Desolations I’, by Ignacio Llamas. The work maintains a dialogue with a pair of pink shoes from the 2005 ‘Valentine’s’ collection. For Navarro, both works represent a “secret” loaded with an air of sensuality. “It’s all those things that happen to you while you’re in shoes.”

Continue the tour through a much larger room, of which Jacob I, by Alfonso Albacete, stands out. The work is a dialogue with some shoes from the collection ‘In a place in the champagne world’, from the series Salons and palaces Exhibition Museum of Decorative Arts of Paris ‘Three Centuries of Fashion’.

To continue the journey, Sara Navarro brings us closer to ‘Amor I y II’, by Antoni Tapis. She accompanies the work with what is perhaps the Alicante woman’s most emotional design, shoes that she made for a solidarity exhibition against AIDS. “I have lost many friends due to this disease, and for me the work symbolizes the positive and negative side of love, how people who have loved so much later end up dying alone.”

The work of the artist Soledad Córdoba also stands out in the room. With whom she has a special relationship, since in addition to being friends, Atelier V was acquired when the artist was not well known. Of course, she was accompanied by a pair of shoes from ‘The Most Infinite Story’, an innovative design inspired by men’s shoes.

The collector describes that her passion for art is not something that was given to her from the cradle, but rather it is something very much hers. “The passion for fashion is from my mother; about the footwear, because of my father’s family; and about art, for myself“.

Sara Navarro belongs to a family of footwear artisans and industrialists from Elda. In 1979 he created his own brand, with a design at the forefront. Since the founding of his company, Sarah Worldhas received relevant awards including the FEDEPE for Business Woman of the Year 2002 or the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2005.

Among the most recent, the Silver Star of the Community of Madrid (2014), the Golden Cherry of the Jerte Valley (2014) and the Solidarity Heart of the Tejerina Foundation (2014) stand out. She is vice president of the Madrid Association of Women Managers and Businesswomen (AMMDE) and director in the Valencian Community.

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