Superfresh
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present Superfresh, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Long Beach-based artist Narsiso Martinez, opening Saturday, March 21 and running through July 5, 2020.
Narsiso Martinez’s drawings and mixed media installations include individual portraits and multi-figure compositions of farm laborers set against the agricultural landscapes and brand designs of grocery store produce boxes. Drawn from his own experience as a farm worker, Martinez’s work focuses on the people performing the labors necessary to fill produce sections and restaurant kitchens around the country. Martinez’s portraits of farm workers are drawn on discarded produce boxes collected from grocery stores. In a style informed by inter-war Social Realism and its antecedent European Realism, Martinez makes visible the difficult labor and onerous working conditions of the American farm worker. For Superfresh, Martinez will present a new series of paintings, drawings and sculptures executed across a range of sizes – from intimate personal portraits to large-scale scenes of workers reminiscent of scenes from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Additionally, resulting from his ongoing residency at the Long Beach City College Ceramic Studio, Martinez will also present his first ceramic tile mural titled Philosophy in the Fields, which will explore farm workers’ contribution to the American economy.
Narsiso Martinez (b. 1977, Oaxaca, Mexico) migrated to the United States when he was 20 years old. He attended Evans Community Adult School and completed high school in 2006 at the age of 29. To finance his education, Martinez worked seasonally in the apple orchards of Eastern Washington for nine years. He earned an Associate of Arts degree in 2009 from Los Angeles City College. In the fall of 2012 Narsiso earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from California State University Long Beach. In the spring of 2018 he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting from California State University Long Beach, and was awarded the prestigious Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture. His work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. Martinez lives and works in Long Beach, CA.
Selected Works
Installation
