Arts Collaborative Central: An Evening with Enrique Martínez Celaya Including a Conversation with Martin Brest

An Evening with Enrique Martínez Celaya Including a Conversation with Martin Brest
November 2, 2023, at 7 p.m.
Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108

Fantastic event at USC

Video of Enrique working

This video lasts 38 minutes. It shows Enrique painting over sections of his painted canvas. It was not shown at the USC event.

Before the presentation at USC they showed a video of Enrique working on his painting, The Cabin. It was a time lapse video. He started with a large cabin that became progressively smaller due to over painting. It became a small cabin with one lighted window. The window became progressively smaller and dimmer until is vanished almost completely along with the cabin itself. [Sorry, I cannot find either the video, or the final image.] Please refer to the video below where the cabin reappears as part of a portrait of his son.

During his lecture, he showed a video of the apple Tree (2023). On a canvas with the bare branches, highlighted in bright red, of the apple tree, he painted in a variety of bright colorful single flowers. He added a white boy figure and then overprinted the flowers which all but disappeared.

During the entire time of Enrique's talk and his conversation with Martin Brest Enrique's works were projected on a screen. The series of images were an engaging counterpoint to the talk. One media type complemented the other.

The apple tree(2023)

The overprinting and the single lonely, often white, figures captured my interest. Any painting you see includes other images that are hidden, but integral to the artist's process.

The Miles McEnery Gallery site shows Enrique's works in the show The Foreigner's Song.

https://milesmcenery.viewingrooms.com/viewing-room/126-enrique-martinez-celaya-the-foreigner-s-song/

Other works:

The traveler's dream

The music (age)

The loveless and the loved

Boy raising his arm

Sunset at sea

The eternal stain

Song of freedom

The child's song

also: a video of Enrique working on The child's song

The child's song video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8WkyhMvO1k

Please see other videos on this site.

Enrique explains his idea of portraiture in a video, Self and Sea.

Enrique on images

Enrique paints one portrait of his son holding a snow globe containing a cabin. This cabin was the subject of a work-in-progress video shown before the USC lecture. His son, now 18, was at the lecture. Enrique said that his relation to his art is similar to his relation to his son. When his son was a year old he might be able to understand what was in his head, but now that his son is 18 it is impossible to know. It's the same with his works. He stands outside them and cannot completely understand what they mean.

Enrique explains his approach to art to Claremont Graduate University students. This video give an idea of his presentation at USC.

CGU Stories: Enrique Martínez Celaya

During the Q and A Enrique said that he approaches art as an experiment. In the process of producing the art if some element emerges that is contrary to the experiment then it is removed.