In Cardboard and Gold, Narsiso Martinez Highlights the Workers of American Agriculture

"For Narsiso Martinez, this essential labor has long been the central point of his practice. The Oaxaca-born artist is known for painting tender portraits on produce boxes, utilizing the discarded packaging as a metaphor for how we assign value. Often working from photos, Martinez depicts people he knows and even worked alongside in the fields when he first migrated to the U.S."

"By including the wheeled device, Martinez draws attention once again to the ways farm labor is often disregarded and the additional depersonalization of the agricultural process when machines replace people."

"In a style informed by 1930s-era Social Realism and heightened through use of found materials, Martinez makes visible the difficult labor and onerous conditions of the 'Americ"

Americans remain largely disconnected from food production despite over 10 percent of the working population employed in agricultural sectors. Many farms and food businesses rely on undocumented workers, who face deportation threats and marginalization. Artist Narsiso Martinez addresses this invisibility through his practice, painting portraits on discarded produce boxes to metaphorically represent how society assigns value. Working from personal photographs and field experiences, Martinez depicts agricultural workers he knows. His recent installations juxtapose human laborers with mechanical pickers, emphasizing the depersonalization of farming. Large-scale works incorporate American symbolism distorted around workers, reflecting 1930s Social Realism aesthetics while making visible the difficult conditions and essential contributions of agricultural laborers.

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