In California State Long Beach's recent masters of fine arts thesis show, artist Narsico Martinez show cases his exhibit titled the “Harvest.” As stated in Martinez’s artist statement, his work is based of his “personal experience with the agricultural industry” and the “big difference between the lifestyles of the struggling workers and that of the wealthy agribusiness.” All the pieces in his show incorporate cardboard produce boxes. Martinez transforms the produce boxes into large-scale canvases and creates a behind the scenes look into the agricultural industry that many people do not get to see.

One thing that I noticed when walking into the gallery were the various bright colors in almost all his pieces. It created a very friendly and inviting vibe to the gallery. Many of the bright colors were from logos and designs already on the produce boxes, but Narciso also incorporated more color. From his visiting artist talk, he mentioned that one of the problems that he faced when adding color to the cardboard was that the color ended up dulling. Narciso came up with the idea of applying gesso to the parts of the piece that he wanted to add color to. This was a very successful solution and brought life to his work.

Narciso's work is heavily figurative. Most if not all the characters that he draws are farm workers. Once again from his artist talk he mentions that the farm workers that he draws are from photographs that he has taken during his time working on the fields. He wanted to show the harsh working conditions that these farm workers have to go through. Narciso said that the workers have to completely cover up to protect themselves from the UV rays and the pesticides in the crops. Evidently, their clothing made them recognizable as gangsters, which was a weird realization for  Narciso. 

Narciso is very talented artist that has a truly empowering story and message to tell. I cannot wait to see how far he will go in his art career. 

El hijo/The Son (2008) by Tadeo Muliero

For this assignment I visited the Museum of Latin American Art or MoLAA, where I experienced one of their current exhibitions on display titled, “Extracorporeal: Beyond the Body” The exhibit is an ode to the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) and explored the human body and its place in our world. The exhibit contained lots of different types of media, such as video, photography and sculpture. The piece that immediately caught my eye was a sculpture by the Argentinian artist Tadeo Muliero titled “El hijo/The Son (2008)”

The sculpture initially caught my eye because of how realistic it looked. The proportion and attention to detail is so precise that the figure becomes unnerving and at first I thought that perhaps it was an actual preserved human body. Naturally, this caused me to go explore the sculpture further. The sculpture “El hijo” is made of fabric, paint, fleece batting paper-mâché, hair and eyelashes. The head of the sculpture is a paper- mâché model of the artist and has hair and eyelashes which gives the sculpture its disturbingly realistic appearance, while the body of the sculpture is made of fabric painted in bright colors, the main figure is surrounded by colorful textile tubes.

In the artist statement, Muliero states that he wanted the sculptured to be a representation of being reborn and its connection to our ancestral roots which were common themes in Ana Mendieta’s work. In the figure I can see the theme or birth as the form that surrounds the main figure brings to mind a child being born as it emerges from its mother. In this sculpture the person being born is the artist and its emerging from its ancestry or culture, which is represented by the colorful figures that are painted on the main figure.

While I was initially drawn to the figure because I found it curious and a bit disturbing, after reading the artist statement the sculpture really resonated with me on a deeper level. It made me think about how when we are born we aren’t just physically birthed but we are also born into a culture which will shape and form our perspectives and experiences. It also made me think about the socio-economic privilege people are born into as for some their birth brings them into a space full of amazing privilege, while for others it can cause tremendous struggle.

I was also drawn to the sculpture because the artist provided the museum with the initial sketches for the piece and some of the prototypes that they created which I found fascinating, as I love to see how other artist work and create their art pieces. I would definitely recommend that people go see this piece in person as pictures can’t truly capture the experience, and the rest of the pieces on display are really fantastic and fascinating as well.

I recently visited CSULB Max L. Gatov art gallery. for an art show by Narsiso Martinez. Narsisos was born in Oaxaca mexico and came to California when he was 19 yrs old and is currently living here in long beach. Narsiso's art mainly consist of  drawings and paintings that uses a variety of media including charcoal, pencils, ink washes and oil paints on recycled cardboard boxes collected from grocery stores. all of Narsiso's work  and pieces mainly consist of his personal experiences in field labor and in the agricultural industry  Narsiso's art work shines a light at today's back braking work in the agricultural industry and how the work is overlooked and unappreciated. Narsiso commented that back then "portraits were usually only for rich people or those of wealth" and I wondered what if a poor farm worker can be in a portraits" and that how Narsiso got the idea of making portraits of poor farm workers. This piece of a young girl shown here is a high school graduate. This specific piece i thought stood out from most of his previous work. Narsiso mentioned in some cultures only males were able to go to school and college and the females were usually the ones that stayed at home with kids or in the kitchen. this young girl is a real person who started working in the fields since she was old enough to carry a bucket. and the meaning behind this this piece that Narsiso created was to cause awareness of the infinity possibilities of staying in school and too encourage parents and kids to go to college and give hope to those who are starting from the bottom that nothings impossible.

Two Nudes in a Room by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

On April 6th, I visited LACMA to explore the different exhibits that were available and found the painting Two Nudes in a Room, by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. This painting's color palette and abstract figures and shapes caught my attention. 

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is considered to be one of the most talented and influential German Expressionists painter and print maker. Kirchner was encouraged, by his parents, to begin studying architecture at the Dresden Technical High School in 1901. While attending his classes, he met his soon-to-be good friend, Fritz Bleyl, who was also a German Expressionist artist and they both shared the same views on art and nature. During Kirchner's time at school, he decided to switch his studies from architecture and focused specifically on fine art. In 1905 he formed an artist group, named Die Brücke (or "The Bridge"), with a couple other architect students. Their group refrained from the traditional academic styles and created their own unique style. Die Brücke would express extreme emotion through crude lines and a vibrant, unnatural color palette.

At the time that Kirchner had completed this painting, the society was unstable and Germany was "encroaching on war". Subject matter of this painting are female prostitutes, who Kirchner chose, to represent a self-portrait of himself as "an outcast of society". The colors have been described as being "powerful, acidic, and exaggerated" and the composition is tight and barely contains negative space. Materials used for this painting was oil on a 47 3/8 x 36 3/4 in. canvas. 

Constellation Scorpio by Shay Bremus

Shay Bredimus was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1979 but grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Bredimus had a troubled youth in Phoenix. He realized he had to leave the city in order to have a future. Bredimus received a Bachelor Fine Arts from the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada and a Master of Fine Arts from Laguna College of Art and Design in Laguna, California. In addition to painting, Shay Bredimus is a renowned tattoo artist. He resides in Long Beach, California.

Constellation Scorpio is 17” x 11”. 

The media used to create the piece is tattoo ink and wax crayon on drafting film. The unusual media choice is a Bredimus trademark stemming from his work as a tattoo artist. In the piece a scorpion is transposed over the face of a woman in the center of a black background. The woman has a forlorn look on her face as she gazes off into the distance. The piece is black and white with rays emitting from the scorpion. Constellation Scorpio is a visual representation of the Scorpio card from the Seni Horoscopes, a 17^th century German fortune telling system. The heavy use of black and opaque material adds a feeling of heaviness or impending misfortune. 

This particular artwork caught my attention since my astrological sign is Scorpio. I have always found astrology to be interesting; especially since it can have a strong impact on people who truly believe in the stars and fortune telling. I was inspired by the approach Bredimus took. On one hand, the artwork follows a traditional approach in representing the human form. The faces are very realistic. However, the nontraditional media gives a fresh approach to a very old, 17^th century practice. Each piece in the show has layers and a very confined or boxed feeling. I would imagine that the envelope approach we used in class was used to define the borders of the subject. After seeing the show, I would like to incorporate more layering in my own work and push how I use space. Both aspects drew the viewer in and forced you to take a longer look at the artwork.

After the Bath (Woman Drying Herself) (detail), about 1886, Edgar Degas. Pastel on paper laid down on board. The J. Paul Getty Museum

Edgar Degas was a 19th century French impressionists that is highly celebrated in the fine arts for not only being a painter but a sculptor as well. At the Getty museum I was able to see one of his pieces titled “After the Bath.” It’s a beautiful pastel drawing created with a rough impressionistic layered surface. He took a Japonisme approach, drawing inspiration from Japanese prints being that he owned one by Torii Kiyonaga which in relation was titled “Two Women at the Bath.” Degas was able to create his own masterful interpretation capturing the Japanese compositional style, and distinct angles represented in the human figures in his impressionistic approach.

Cold Shoulder

This weekend I went to LACMA to see an exhibt and stumbled on Roy Lichtenstein collection. Roy is among of artists whose evoking of commercial imagery became known in the 1960s as Pop Art. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. For his first body of work, Lichtenstein appropriated and manipulated comic-strip imagery using limited, flat colors and precise drawing. The woman in this work says "Hello," but it is hardly a greeting: her back is against the viewer. Using techniques employed in the production of comics, Lichtenstein depicts his subject’s skin through a handmade imitation of a mechanized process known as Benday small dots. I personally went to LACMA to see another piece of work, but this piece drew my attention and became my favorite out of his collection. I felt connected to the message that this piece gives off.