Born in the mid-1940s, Miquel Navarro is one of Spain’s foremost artists. He belongs to the young generation who, coinciding with the return to democracy in Spain and the reinvention and newfound popularity of sculpture on an international level, developed practices borrowing from Neo-, Minimalism, and , giving rise to what would be known as New Spanish Sculpture.

This Valencian artist leverages industrial materials and processes to create pieces that could be placed somewhere between the artwork and the artefact. In his practice Navarro supresses everything superfluous and makes uses of the pure forms of geometry to give shape to a style underpinned by principles such as combination, repetition, variations in size and the opposition of notions such as figuration and abstraction or verticality and horizontality. This language functions on the two levels the artist has been working with since his first steps as a sculptor following a brief initial period when he was more interested in painting: on one hand, the level of the artistic object in itself, like the work in hand; or, on the other, his series of “cities” which he composes using these elements and which act as metaphors for the habitat of the human being contemplating them.

Canals is one of an edition of 650 unnumbered pieces, signed and dated on the base, which Navarro created for Uralita, the multinational construction materials company, to commemorate its centennial in 2007. For this commission he created one of his signature totemic figures, notable for its powerful verticality and elegant lines, further enhanced by the colour and finish enabled by the particular aluminium alloy chosen by the artist.