Self-Portrait En La Cherry: In Conversation with Artist Narsiso Martinez
Artist Narsiso Martinez
Narsiso Martinez, (Mexican, b. 1977, active USA), Self-Portrait En La Cherry (with Strawberry Fields Forever in the Background), 2020. Ink, charcoal, gouache and acrylic matte gel on produce cardboard boxes. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by The Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund, 2020.12.2a-j.
As part of the exhibition Inside/Outside, (on view until February 18) a survey of recent acquisitions, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is pleased to welcome back Narsiso Martinez for a public presentation. Martinez takes the produce boxes from grocery stores and paints portraits of the agricultural laborers many of whom are undocumented and subjected to terrible working conditions. These poignant images bring to the fore all the unseen labor that supports agribusiness and come from his experience as a worker in the fields up and down the West Coast.
Martinez was born in Oaxaca (1977) and completed his education in the United States, earning his high school diploma at Evans Community Adult School at the age of 29. He eventually earned his BFA and MFA from CalState Long Beach. He has had solo shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Charlie James Gallery, and the Museum of Latin American Art. He has been reviewed by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Village Voice, and his work is widely collected by museums, including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
