The Armory Show 2023
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present a solo exhibition of new works by gallery artist Narsiso Martinez for the 2023 edition of The Armory Show from September 8-10, 2023. This is the first solo presentation of works by Narsiso in New York City. Narsiso Martinez’s drawings and mixed media installations include multi-figure compositions set amidst agricultural landscapes. Drawn from his own experience as a farmworker, Martinez’s work focuses on the people performing the labors necessary to fill produce sections and restaurant kitchens around the country. Martinez’s portraits of farmworkers are painted, drawn, and expressed in sculpture on discarded produce boxes collected from grocery stores. 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 “American farmworker,” itself a compromised piece of language owing to the industry’s conspicuous use of undocumented workers.
The gallery’s booth will be anchored by a pair of large scale pieces - Essential Since 2013 and Essential Since 2004 - two large scale portraits of farmworkers executed on a series of found produce boxes. Each piece presents a portrait of an individual farmworker, one female and one male, each in poses suggestive of a cross. Each piece measures approximately 8 x 6 ft in dimension. In gold leaf at the top of each portrait are fragments of QR codes taken from the subjects' ID cards, used in the fields by “checkers” who measure and track the harvests for each worker. Flanking these works are several portraits of farmworkers at work and at rest on found produce boxes. Narsiso is currently exhibiting at the CONVERGE Biennial in Portland, Oregon. In December of 2023, Narsiso will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Buffalo AKG Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox) which will run until April of 2024.
Narsiso Martinez (b. 1977, Oaxaca, Mexico) came to the United States when he was 20 years old. He attended Evans Community Adult School and completed high school in 2006 at the age of 29. He earned an Associate of Arts degree in 2009 from Los Angeles City College. In the fall of 2012 Narsiso earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from California State University Long Beach. In the spring of 2018 he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting from California State University Long Beach, and was awarded the prestigious Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture. His work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. His work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, MOLAA, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Martinez was awarded the Frieze Impact Award in 2023. Martinez lives and works in Long Beach, CA.
THE ARMORY SHOW 2023
Venue
Javits Center
Crystal Palace Entrance
429 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Opening Hours
VIP Private (Invited Guests only)
Thursday, September 7
Public days
Friday, September 8 | 11am–7pm
Saturday, September 9 | 11am–7pm
Sunday, September 10 | 11am–6pm
Selected Works
installation
