Fallon Navarro has become known in the community as the de facto resistance leader of students and their allies who strenuously fought against the decision of UMD to, without warning, shutter the CVPA Star Store building two weeks before classes were to resume in September.
A final year MFA candidate with a concentration in ceramics, the soft spoken and slight-in-build Navarro seems to be an unlikely leader, but her devotion to the cause is both fierce and disarming. She has harnessed a justifiable outrage that is tempered with eloquence.
Her role as a spokeswoman has, to a degree, overshadowed the very reason she came to the MFA graduate program: to make art and to display it publicly. The forcible ousting of students from the Star Store eliminated at least four viable viewings spaces — the University Gallery, the Crapo Gallery, Gallery 244, and the Bubbler Gallery.
However, Navarro and a number of MFA colleagues have formed the Star Store Collective. It is a group of dedicated students who, upon the loss of the much-loved college art center, worked collaboratively to advocate for art, education and community.
The Star Store Collective is operating a gallery — entirely funded by private donors — at 65 William St., which in years past housed the ceramics-centric Navio Artisans Collective and later, Gallery 65 on William, a member cooperative.
Operating as a guerrilla gallery of sorts, the plan is for it to run through May, with exhibitions focused on the work of a number of Persian graduate students and a Worker’s Art Alliance poster contest.
But at present, Navarro and ceramist colleagues Anis Beigzadeh and Marilyn Perry have their work on display at the No More Star Store Gallery. Even if not formally named as such, it is perfectly apt and it was used on posters calling attention to the exhibition. “Works In Ceramics: A Student Exhibition” will be on display there through Jan. 21.
Navarro’s “A Slippery Slope” is a collection of fanciful porcelain objects displayed on a shelf covered with tiny tiles of lavender and pale blues and greens. The application of the tiles is less than uniform but it nonetheless works as an elegant backsplash. Navarro is not seeking perfunctory perfection. Nothing is smooth or glossy. She embraces the tactile, her hand is always evident.
The objects on top of the shelf are creamy white and soft pink, as lush and sweet and sticky as a cupcake display. There is something both traditionally and stereotypically feminine about her color choices, and Navarro seems to relish that expectation, almost making fun of it.
The objects themselves are non-functional. But they certainly reference the domestic and the utilitarian.
In the opening line of an artist’s statement, Navarro notes that her practice involves reflecting on the complexities of everyday life and uncertainty. The final line of her statement encourages viewers to “make space for the unknown.”
One of the pink-and-white objects suggests a birdcage or a vase. Cylindrical shapes rise from a vessel, seemingly secured by wads of bubblegum. Another piece evokes the culinary world, as squiggly off-white strands resemble slurpy angel hair pasta or ramen noodles, but also give thought to worms and the like.
If one allows oneself to “make space for the unknown,” as Navarro implores, one might imagine a distorted wedding cake decorated with fangs and tiny pink balls, or a halo that has lost its angel, or a warrior’s discarded vessel.
It was a delight to see “Slippery Slope” on a winter morning, when the bright sun cast mysterious shadows on the wall, elevating it to an ethereal plane.
Navarro’s “Loops and Bows” is a large chocolate brown chalice, incapable of holding a drop of wine as it is formed from a series of interwoven loops. As one can see through the non-vessel vessel, it becomes clear what she means when she seeks to reimagine functional objects. She plays with any number of dichotomies: inside vs. outside, private vs. public, possible vs. actual, and again, most significantly, utilitarian vs. contemplative.
Four white candles with blackened wicks ring the base, adding a sense of the spiritual or the romantic. Or both.
“Loops and Bows” is also constructed with modularity in mind, so that if she wished to do so, Navarro could unstack the component elements and rearrange them to put a different spin on the structure.
“The Space Between Us,” set atop a pedestal, is a preparatory work for a planned much larger version. Formed with a series of brownish-red ceramic interlocking latticed ovals, it exists somewhere between an elaborate decorative basket and a medieval corset.
Navarro is an imaginative artist, who was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and fondly speaks of her grandmother who taught her to be a “maker” well before that term became vogue in the art world. Her grandma showed her how to construct theater boxes, how to sew and weave, and how to arrange flowers.
She has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic condition and chronic illness that affects connective tissue, in which joint pain, hypermobility and fatigue are frequent symptoms. Her condition made her realize at a young age that she needed to speak out for herself.
And that clearly carried over into other elements of her life, in which she needed to become an advocate not only for herself but for the others around her, such as her CVPA colleagues.
The determined efforts of Navarro and her stalwart compatriots led to the Graduate Student Union allying themselves with local unions who offered assistance and logistics when they rallied against the administration. It led to a group of private donors covering the rent for the gallery space on William Street.
It led to Jeff Glassman, the owner of the Hatch Street Studios, offering students to take over a workspace in that facility rent-free, so long as they covered the utility bills. It led to another artist at Hatch allowing the ceramics students to utilize their kiln.
Navarro lives in New Bedford with her husband Joseph, her young son Isaac and her mother Keiko. And she has no plans to leave the city, even after her graduation.
Buoyed by the generosity of the spirit of the people of New Bedford, Navarro has set roots. She’s a perfect fit.
Email Don Wilkinson at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
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