Enrique Martinez Celaya

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Enrique Martínez Celaya
Enrique Martinez Celaya (49614371027).jpg
Martinez Celaya in 2020
Born (1964-06-09) June 9, 1964 (age 57)
Palos, Cuba
EducationCornell University (B.S. 1986)
University of California, Berkeley (M.S. 1988)
University of California, Santa Barbara (M.F.A. 1994)
Known forPainter, sculptor, author, educator
StyleContemporary
Spouse(s)
Alexandra Williams
​
​
(m. 1999; div. 2015)​
Websitemartinezcelaya.com

Enrique Martínez Celaya (born June 9, 1964) is a contemporary Cuban-born painter, sculptor, author and former scientist whose work has been exhibited and collected by major institutions around the world.[1] He trained and worked as a physicist, completing all coursework for his doctorate, before devoting himself full-time to his artwork. He holds master's degrees in physics and fine arts and has authored books on art and philosophy as well as scientific articles. He is currently a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, and the Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts at USC.

Early life and education[]

Martínez Celaya was born on June 9, 1964, in Havana, Cuba, and spent his early childhood in Nueva Paz and Los Palos, Cuba.[2][3][4][5][6][7] His family relocated to Madrid, Spain in 1972. While there, he took up drawing at the age of eight.[8][9][10][11] In 1975, the family relocated again, this time to Puerto Rico.[10] He initiated his formal training as an apprentice to a painter at the age of 12 and developed his early interest in writing and philosophy.[12]

In 1982 he enrolled at Cornell University.[8][10] He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics and a minor in Electrical Engineering in 1986.[13][8] He was selected as a Regent's Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Master of Science degree with a specialization in Quantum Electronics[10] While there, he patented several laser devices.[13][8][9][10][14] He later enrolled in the M.F.A. program at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with highest honors in 1994.[13][8] After graduation, he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.[8]

Work[]

Martínez Celaya uses familiar and accessible images such as a boy, a girl, a unicorn, birds, deer, a dog, a sunrise or a seascape pursue a deeper order of experience that lies beneath appearances and beyond our intellectual grasp that resembles moments of childhood astonishment and wonder at the world's radiance. His work draws from the prose of Jorge Luis Borges, Herman Melville, and Lev Tolstoy; the poetry of Paul Celan, Osip Mandelstam, Harry Martinson, and José Saramago; the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger, Hegel, and Ludwig Wittgenstein; the paintings of Velasquez, Caspar David Friedrich, and Ferdinand Hodler; Kurt Schwitters's Hanover Merzbau; the social practice of Joseph Beuys and Paulo Freire; the films of Andrei Tarkovsky; and the music of Bach.

About his interest in literature, Martínez Celaya states, “Reading is a primary source for my work." I read philosophy and literature and that is the universe I see my work in, even though I'm a visual artist. ... Often when artists talk about writers, they're talking about them as source of content. I'm reading them for a moral stance in the world.”[15]

Martinez Celaya writes a popular blog on his website, with a selection of entries published as The Blog: Bad Time for Poetry (Whale & Star, 2010). The University of Nebraska Press published a twenty-year survey of his writings in 2011, entitled Collected Writings and Interviews, 1990-2010; and Martínez Celaya published a selection of lecture notes from his popular workshops, entitled On Art and Mindfulness (Whale & Star, 2015), in collaboration with the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado.

Martínez Celaya founded Whale and Star in 1998, an imprint that specializes in art and its relationship to other intellectual and creative fields, especially literature, philosophy, and critical theory. The University of Nebraska Press serves as Whale and Star's primary distributor.

Academic positions[]

Martínez Celaya is currently Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts at USC (2017–present) in Los Angeles and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College (2014–present).[16][1] He was the Roth Family Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth (2016-2017).[17] He was Visiting Presidential Professor in the history of art at University of Nebraska (2007–2010), and an assistant professor of art at Pomona College[8] and the Claremont Graduate University, (1993-2003).

In 2010, Martínez Celaya inaugurated The Lecture Project, funded with assistance from the Knight Foundation. The original programming presented lectures from academics and art critics until late 2012. In 2019, in collaboration with USC Dornsife The Lecture Project was re-launched and is currently hosting programming from Martínez Celaya's Los Angeles Studio.[18]

Awards[]

Martínez Celaya was awarded the Brookhaven National Laboratory Fellowship (1986–1988), and was Interdisciplinary Humanities Fellow and Regents Fellow from the University of California (1992–94). He received Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Young Talent Award (1998), the Hirsch Grant (2002), the Rosa Blanca Award from the Cuban Community (2002), and the California Community Foundation Fellowship, Getty Foundation Award (2004). He was honored with the Inaugural Colorado Contemporary Arts Collaborative Artist Residency at the CU Art Museum, sponsored by Kent and Vicki Logan (2004), and received the Anderson Ranch Arts Center's National Artist Award (2007).[1] In 2020, Martínez Celaya was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from Otis College of Art and Design.[19] He was invited to give the college's commencement address the same year, and in 2021 joined the Otis College Board of Governors.[20]

Personal life[]

Martínez Celaya married Alexandra Williams, the daughter of American journalist Christian Williams, in 1999.[21][22][23] They have four children together.[22] They later divorced in 2015.[22][24] In November 2018, Martínez Celaya was engaged to Australian singer Erica Packer after meeting at the school in Los Angeles their children attended together.[24][25][26] Packer called the engagement off in early 2020.[27]

Martínez Celaya lives and works in Los Angeles, California.[28]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "CV - ENRIQUE Martinez Celaya" (PDF).
  2. ^ "The Prophet: Can Enrique Martinez Celaya Be That Guy?" (PDF). www.michaelslenske.com.
  3. ^ "Enrique Martínez Celaya". lalouver.com. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
  4. ^ "Enrique Martinez Celaya, The Tower of Snow". Hermitage Museum.
  5. ^ "Distance | Denver Art Museum". www.denverartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  6. ^ "Enrique Martinez Celaya" (PDF). Parafin Gallery.
  7. ^ "Enrique Martínez Celaya: From Cliché to Archetype". www.artealdia.com. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Harth, Marjorie. "Portrait of the Artist: Enrique Martínez Celaya". Archived from the original on September 10, 2005. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Finkel, Jori (November 21, 2008). "Layers of Devotion (and the Scars to Prove It)". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Gonzalez, Gaspar (December 2005). "The Escape Artist" (PDF). Boca Raton. Boca Raton, Florida. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  11. ^ Trueblood Brodzky, Anne (1999). Unbroken Poetry: The Work of Enrique Martínez Celaya. Whale & Star Press. p. 26.
  12. ^ "BIOGRAPHY - ENRIQUE MARTINEZ CELAYA". www.martinezcelaya.com. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c "ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ CELAYA". Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  14. ^ "Contact laser delivery probe". Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  15. ^ "Enrique Martinez Celaya's 'Notes From the Anderson Ranch' | AspenTimes.com". The Aspen Times. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  16. ^ http://news.usc.edu/122273/artist-enrique-martinez-celaya-named-first-provost-professor-of-humanities-and-arts-at-usc-dornsife/
  17. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2016-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ "ABOUT". The Lecture Project. Retrieved 2019-04-06.
  19. ^ "Honorary Doctorate Citation and Certificate" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  20. ^ "Otis College Announces Enrique Martínez Celaya as Newest Member of the Board of Governors". Otis College of Art and Design. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  21. ^ Williams, Christian (June 11, 2006). "AN EVER WIDER WORLD / Enrique Martínez Celaya". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Erica and new love fly home to plan wedding". The Sunday Telegraph. Sydney. November 25, 2018.
  23. ^ Greenwood, Chelsea (November 2009). "Art of Conversation" (PDF). Boca Raton. Boca Raton, Florida: 118–123. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b Wingett, Fiona (November 20, 2018). "Erica's French Bliss". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney.
  25. ^ "Erica Packer". The Sunday Telegraph. Sydney. December 16, 2018.
  26. ^ Gellie, Campbell (March 29, 2019). "Erica's Life Is All Rosy". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney.
  27. ^ "Packer and Cuban lover call it quits". The Sunday Mail. Brisbane. February 2, 2020.
  28. ^ Slenske, Michael (April 5, 2015). "The Prophet: Can Enrique Martínez Celaya Be That Guy?". Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved February 29, 2016.

External links[]

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