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

[demmiblue]

Americans are uniquely disconnected from our food. More than 10 percent of the working population is employed in agricultural sectors, but it’s rare for the average person to grapple with—let alone witness—the number of people involved in growing, harvesting, packaging, and ultimately getting dinner onto their plate. Given that many farms, restaurants, and other food-related businesses employ those who are undocumented, these sectors have also been targeted for deportation, further pushing the people who keep them running into the shadows.

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.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/03/narsiso-martinez-sculpture-portraits/

[Goonch]

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