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.