Narsiso Martinez Farm Fresh

                                              Narsiso Martinez

Narsiso migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico when he was 20 years old. While in Mexico he attended school sporadically and had barely a ninth grade education. While working in the fields picking vegetables and fruits to earn a living, something he did while in Mexico, he attended Hollywood High School to first learn English and then to acquire a GED.  Studying art history at Los Angeles City College reignited his interest in art, thus, prompting him to major in art at California State University, Long Beach, just recently receiving a MFA. Narsiso is presently being exhibited at Long Beach Museum of Art in Long Beach, CA in an exhibition tilted Fresh Farm from October 5, 2018 through January 6, 2019. His exhibit consists of portraits of farmer workers printed on dura-lar and mounted on produce labels and sculptured fruit and vegetables placed in produce boxes as well as stacked produce cartons on which farm workers are drawn and painted. He garnered most of his information while working in the fields in Washington and California, observing and interviewing his fellow workers which later morph into powerful, imaginative and awe-inspiring commentary of life in the fields through art. I was most especially drawn to his 12 linocuts of farm workers in a portraiture format titled, “Ghosts”, 2017.

The dominant color expressed in Narsiso's linocuts on dura-lar is black which gives the pieces a foreboding and ominous feel as though the 12 portraits of farm workers in a life-size format are depicting life in an urban setting----that is gang life on the streets instead of a rural setting as in this case. He also uses such pastels as pinks, yellow, orange, and turquoise along with a splattering of grays to great effect-----that is they act as a counterpoint to the heaviness and gloominess of the black. Narsiso also used color and line to create texture. Most prints are executed from different vantages with the participants wearing pretty much the same garb, baseball caps, hoodies and ski mask and/or bandanas tied across their mouths just below their eyes with their eyes usually obscured in some fashion----a picture of the adject, the ignored and the untouchables of our society, “Ghosts”.  They seem like outlaws instead of the law abiding and contributing individuals that they are.

I found the work to be compelling and powerful in scope and visual impact. Narsiso puts the plight of farm workers front and center, hoping to be an agent of change. His selection of hues further enhance the theme of his prints and his narrative is effective, visually, and on full view for all to see, admire and critique. I especially was drawn to his use of clothing to further enhance his attempt to get us to view or see the unseeable. Their is a tendency to look away but his imagery is so riveting that it is difficult to do so.