Joseph Martinez is a self taught artist on the rise from Denver, Colorado who has exhibited his delicate and detailed works internationally. His work has been praised and covered by the likes of Huffington Post, Playboy, Juxtapoz and Beautiful/Decay and we are thrilled to showcase his new series of work here in Los Angeles.

Each of the new portraits in Baggage are raw, unapologetic, and anything but understated. Each work is drenched in powerful emotion and aims to shine a light on the ever-growing homeless population in Los Angeles and most major cities in the United States. Martinez’s canvases for this show are the high end shopping bags of Rodeo Drive mainstays Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Hermes and Gucci. The juxtaposition between these symbols of the wealthy and the portraits of our displaced citizens serves as a stark commentary on how we as a society all too often choose to ignore and push aside that which we do not understand.

The artist elaborates, “My overall goal is to share my ideas with the the viewer creating some sort of reaction, whether it may be good or bad. We always seem to destroy the things around us… [while] striving for things to be perfect.