Knoxville Collects: Susana Navarro

Knoxville Collects: Susana Navarro

Kramer Education Center

April 3 through May 24, 2026

Reception May 17, 12-2pm

The Knoxville Museum of Art will celebrate the many interests and idiosyncrasies inhabiting the collections that live within our city. From icons of art history to eccentric compilations of kitsch, this series offers snapshots of the many individuals who help make Knoxville unique.

This inaugural presentation of Knoxville Collects features the collection of Susana Navarro, a Knoxville-based collector and entrepreneur whose perspective is shaped by her upbringing in Mexico City, and by a family of women who embody resilience and leadership. Trained as an engineer, she co-founded Navarro Research and Engineering in 1993, which works in nuclear, environmental, and clean energy fields across the United States. Navarro built her collection in a very personal manner, marrying art historical research with works that reflect her experiences and ambitions for the world; what she had seen, and what she hoped to see in the future.

Rather than organizing works by movement or chronology, Navarro brings together modern Latin American and French Post-Impressionist paintings in close proximity, allowing them to speak across difference. Through this selection, visitors are offered a window into Navarro’s life, her way of seeing, and the objects that accompany her.

Image: Diego Rivera Vendedor de Maiz 1944