SELF-PORTRAITURE: GUADALUPE NAVARRO’S MFA SHOW CHARTS THE UNDOCUMENTED IN STRIKING RELIEF

By: Cynthia Adams | Photos By: Nancy Evelyn

LAST YEAR, Guadalupe Navarro’s Master of Fine Arts candidates’ exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Arts revealed intricate metalsmithing works that he calls a “form of self-portrait.”

In an interview before the show opened, Navarro told art blogger Maycee Dukes his work reflected his life growing up in Chicago as a first-generation, Mexican- American. Navarro shared how themes such as Mexican pride, Mexican drug culture, Catholicism and the current status of undocumented migrants in the U.S. underscored his art.

“There’s not a lot of Hispanics [in the fine arts world], and just kind of thinking about that and giving a narrative to my story…. I’ve always viewed my work as kind of like a self-portrait, even if it’s not an exact drawing of my own face. Your work is a self-portrait of yourself,” he related.

Upon graduation, Navarro was hired this past summer to work as an instructor of visual arts at the Interlochen Center for Arts in Michigan. He joined the staff at Georgia Gwinnett College immediately after his return from Interlochen.

In his unique self-portraiture, Navarro moved beyond his initial drawing and conceptual skills to give expression to three-dimensional objects as a form of narrative. “I kind of want to give my perspective, which is relatively unique to the field, and relative in the objects that I’m making. I feel that it’s really new and fresh and relative to the political times,” Navarro told Dukes. “Hopefully, I could kind of be an ambassador to people that came from where I came from and have my perspective.”

In his earlier career as an artist, Navarro used drawing as his primary medium. Today, his work in metals has led to revealing aspects of his own artistic reach. He explains that metalsmithing required so many new skills that mastery of the medium has been complex and demanding.

“Metals really made me take a step farther back in terms of being able to learn again,” Navarro said. The sheer tedium and repetition slowed him, he explains, and forced him to “take time with my studio practice.” As a result, he believes other artistic strengths he had originally developed, such as his drawing, have deepened.

Shown below are works from Navarro’s 2019 MFA exhibition.