November 2, 2007 – January 13, 2008
New Work Gallery

Enrique Martínez Celaya works in a variety of media, including painting, photography, sculpture and installation. He is perhaps best known for his large-scale paintings made from tar and other materials. Influenced by the writings of poets and philosophers, these rich and brooding paintings suggest deep feelings of loneliness, yearning and desire for connection. Generally stripped down in imagery, but dense in execution, Celaya’s atmospheric paintings are both highly expressive yet strangely mute. For his exhibition at MAM, Cuban-born Enrique Martínez Celaya will create a group of five large-scale oil-and-wax paintings inspired in part by the poems of Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson, which will explore issues of exile and nomadism.

Enrique Martínez Celaya working on his MAM exhibition.

The exhibition is organized by Miami Art Museum and curated by Assistant Director for Programs/Senior Curator Peter Boswell as part of New Work, a series of projects by leading contemporary artists. It is supported by the Funding Arts Network and MAM’s Annual Exhibition Fund.