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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA
The Omen (Tulip), 2023
Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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" . . . there was a struggle. I began with the seas. Then I sat with them until I was ready to bring in the flowers. The flowers directly or indirectly have some relationship with the seas with which they interact."
- Enrique Martínez Celaya in conversation with Barry Schwabsky, "The Sea, Childhood, Exile"
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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA
The Omen (Gardenia), 2023
Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA
The Omen (Pink Hollyhock), 2023
Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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"The lily . . . it's almost not there—it's so loose and sketchy. Compare it to the pink hollyhock, which is more rendered. And the difference between them is not only about two ways of rendering the flowers but two ways of thinking about what painting does and how the image can be embodied in the material. Those differences are not the result of decisions about how the flower would be handled but the consequences of the effort of creating a painting from the existing sea—from the pressures the existing sea put onto what could exist there."
- Enrique Martínez Celaya in conversation with Barry Schwabsky, "The Sea, Childhood, Exile"
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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA
The Omen (Second White Lily), 2023
Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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"I am, says each, a vision you cannot name: a calyx and crucifix of the same; a map for the navigator when tide is to blame. As wreaths they will quit, flow away, in solitudes of disarray. But for a moment they arise, cross the ocean at a bound, kiss the ground. The petals on the breast are what they know best."
- Alexander Nemerov in "A Gallery of Saints"
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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYAThe Omen (Blue Poppy) , 2023Oil and wax on canvas72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm -
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA
The Omen (Gladiola), 2023
Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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"The ocean is their place, waves spun from the horizon. Not to annul the distance, not to deny it exists, but to enrich the emptiness, the flowers sport their shapes of exemption, a life brighter than ours. Theirs are the colors of the crude, writ in dramas of amplitude, a troubadour’s song that ceases before long. Incense and burnished bride, hallowed smell and honey’s hive, they bloom to the sailor in a trance—lotus for the starved, shore to the sinking crew, spiced with the salt of what is not true."
- Alexander Nemerov in "A Gallery of Saints"
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Sketchbook of Enrique Martínez Celaya
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Enrique Martínez Celaya in his studio, 2023, Los Angeles, CA.View More
Enrique Martínez Celaya (b. 1964) received his Bachelor of Science from Cornell University, his Master of Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts at the University of Southern California, Distinguished Professor for the MFA program at Otis College of Art and Design, and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College.
Martínez Celaya has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy; Secci Gallery, Florence; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York; UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles; Fisher Museum of Art, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Monterey Museum of Art, CA; and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, among others.
His work may be found in numerous international institutions 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; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
The recipient of a myriad of honors and accolades, Martínez Celaya has held fellowships at the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation, Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA; The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA; Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, University of Southern California; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; and the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, Los Angeles. In 2022, he was recognized as a Distinguished Mentor by Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, following his appointment as a Doctor Honoris Causa and serving on the institution’s Board of Governors.
The artist lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
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ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYAThe Omen (Tulip), 2023Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm -
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYAThe Omen (Gardenia), 2023Oil and wax on canvas72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm -
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYAThe Omen (Pink Hollyhock), 2023Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm -
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYAThe Omen (Second White Lily), 2023Oil and wax on canvas
72 x 60 inches
182.9 x 152.4 cm
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