Enrique Martínez Celaya (b. 1964, Cuba) is the first Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts in the history of the University of Southern California and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, where he was also a Roth Family Distinguished Visiting Scholar.
Through his paintings, sculptures, installations, and writing, Martínez Celaya explores the exilic imagination, blending reality, myth, and memory to create poetic works that range from the semi-autobiographical to the resonantly universal. He describes his work as an open-ended, existential inquiry simultaneously addressing the "big gears of nature and the small gears of human experience."
His work is part of the collections of over sixty leading international museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
He is the author of nine books on art, philosophy, and poetry, including two volumes of his Collected Writings and Interviews (University of Nebraska Press: 2020 and 2010), tracing three decades of the artist’s creative thought. His work has also been the focus of several monographic publications, including two recent books by Hatje Cantz, Berlin: Martínez Celaya, SEA SKY LAND: towards a map of everything and Enrique Martínez Celaya and Käthe Kollwitz: Von den ersten und den letzten Dingen.
Martínez Celaya trained as an artist and physicist at Cornell University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
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Installation view, "The Grief of Almost," Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH., 2024
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Installation view, "The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez/Enrique Martínez Celaya," the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York, NY., 2024
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El paquete (The Package), 2024
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El tigre (The Tiger), 2024
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The Word-Shimmering Sea Series, 2024
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Installation view, "The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez/Enrique Martínez Celaya," the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, New York, NY., 2024
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La anoranza, las medias (The Yearning, The Socks), 2024
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La anoranza, el avion (The Yearning, The Airplane), 2024
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The Story of the Boy and the Flowers, 2024
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Los que nunca se van, 2023
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Las lágrimas rutinarias, 2023
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The Harvest, 2023
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The Apple Tree, 2023
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Installation view, "The Treasure of the Patient," Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy., 2023
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The Omen (Tulip), 2023
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Installation view, "There-bound," Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, 2021
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Installation view, "The Landmark," The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA., 2016
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Installation view, "The Crown," Collection of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA., 2015
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Installation view, "The Tower of Snow," The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia., 2012
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The Castle, 2011
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Installation view, "The Boy with Horse," Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York, NY., 2010
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Installation view, "Schneebett," Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin, Germany., 2004
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Art New England | The Grief of Almost
Enrique Martínez Celaya at the Hood Museum of Art October 1, 2024By Michael W. Zhang October, 2024 A visit to the Hood Museum of Art, College in Hanover, New Hampshire, is always an...Read more -
Artforum | Enrique Martínez Celaya
Hispanic Society Museum and Library October 1, 2024Barry Schwabsky October 2024 Museums with historically oriented collections have long recognized the value of inviting contemporary artists to intervene in their...Read more -
Now Representing Enrique Martínez Celaya
September 19, 2024San Francisco, September 19, 2024—Gallery Wendi Norris proudly announces its representation of acclaimed Cuban-born, American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya. Through his paintings, sculptures, installations, and...Read more -
The Village Voice | Painter Enrique Martínez Celaya and the Hero’s Journey
The Hispanic Society’s current show taps art history, architecture, and the power of a good origin story. June 1, 2024Martha Schwendener, Will Heinrich, and Blake Gopnik 1 July 2024 To draw a child well you have to do it with love — even, or...Read more
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Artnet | Enrique Martínez Celaya’s Studio Is a Monastic Laboratory Where Art, History, and Science Percolate
The artist's stunning new show at the Hispanic Society in New York mines his lifelong interest in Diego Velasquez. May 8, 2024by Eileen Kinsella 8 May 2024 Cuban-born artist Enrique Martínez Celaya was just six years old in 1971 when his mother gave...Read more -
The New York Times | What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in May
The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez / Enrique Martínez Celaya May 2, 2024Martha Schwendener, Will Heinrich, and Blake Gopnik 2 May 2024 There are places you can’t easily return to, like childhood or, for many migrants...Read more -
Art Basel Miami Beach Features | Portrait of the Artist
For Los Angeles Artist Enrique Martínez Celaya, Art Is Not Only for Depicting What Was, but What It Can Be, or What May Have Never Been at All. Biography, History, and Identity Are All Open for Interpretation. December 1, 2023Jennifer Piejko 1 December 2023 Born in Havana, Cuba, and growing up in Madrid and Puerto Rico, artist Enrique Martínez Celaya came to visual art...Read more -
la Repubblica Firenza | L’arte di Martínez Celaya, enigmi da interpretare
MUSEO MARINO MARINI April 1, 2023Elisabetta Berti 4 January 2024 Dentro ad un’uccelliera sta in piedi un ragazzo di bronzo in abiti da scolaretto, in una posa di pura contrizione:...Read more
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Installation Magazine | The Four Quartets of Los Angeles
Enrique Martínez Celaya Defines a New Border March 21, 2022By A. Moret August 2, 2022 Standing behind a bouquet of crimson red roses, Enrique Martínez Celaya waits to address a host of guests. Their...Read more -
Los Angeles Times | With four L.A. shows, Enrique Martínez Celaya displays the breadth of his artistic range
March 3, 2022By Leah Ollman March 3, 2022 When the artist Enrique Martínez Celaya was 9 and living with his family in a storage room in...Read more -
Vogue México | Mi nombre es Nadie: Una obra con muchos nombres
NG Art Gallery presenta una muestra de Enrique Martínez Celaya, con una narrativa que alude a todos los que migran esperando regresar. January 4, 20224 January, 2022 En la escena artística de Ciudad de Panamá, NG Art Gallery tiene un prestigioso espacio desde que estableció su sede en la...Read more -
The Brooklyn Rail | Enrique Martínez Celaya with Eleanor Heartney
“Art allows the possibility of everything being in.” March 1, 2021By Eleanor Heartney March 2021 Enrique Martínez Celaya is that rare artist who is also a polymath. Born in Cuba, raised in...Read more