Food and Beyond, Beyond Food
Food and Beyond, Beyond Food
Curated by Narsiso Martinez
969 Chung King Road
september 25 - november 7, 2026
OPENING RECEPTION: september 25, 5-8pm
Food and Beyond, Beyond Food is a group exhibition that connects four female artists from different cultural backgrounds through the idea of food and nourishment. Curated by Narsiso Martinez, the show features works by Andrea Bersaglieri, Ashley Jose-Isip, Jessy Slim, and Karen Tepaz. The show will run concurrently with Narsiso Martinez’s solo exhibition “Eat Happy.
Andrea Bersaglieri’s black and white large charcoal drawings of soil remind us that fertile land is not forever, and that we need to take care of it so that in return, it can continue nourishing us. Jessy Slim’s usage of chickpeas as “paint” not only reminds the viewer that art materials can come from the least expected sources, the chickpea “paint” also helps her cope with nostalgia for her homeland in Lebanon. Ashley Jose-Isip references a multiplicity of elements like fast food restaurants, artificial sweets, and plates to explore the Filipino-American identity. She questions the artificiality of what we put in our bodies and impermanence of our surroundings. Karen Tepaz’s abstract and organic shaped ceramic sculptures allude to motherhood and nourishment. These artists, individually, have their own perspectives and practices, but what is similar is their emphasis on the subject of nourishment in many ways beyond food.
Curator Bio:
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. Martinez has a solo show on view now at the Catalina Museum for Art and History and his work is also on view at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
Martinez’s work is in the collections of the MFA Houston, LACMA, the Buffalo AKG Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, MOLAA, University of Arizona Museum of Art, the UCI Langson Orange County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, the Tucson Museum of Art, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the Laguna Art Museum and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art among others. Martinez was awarded the Frieze Impact Award in 2023. Martinez lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and is represented by Charlie James Gallery.
Selected Works
Installation
