The Word-Shimmering Sea: Enrique Martínez Celaya Immerses NYC into Emotional Story of Exile & Promise

“The world referenced in these letters is a world that I have nothing to do with anymore," artist and academic Enrique Martínez Celaya implores to a small crowd of art appreciators and curators standing before him at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York City.

Martínez Celaya is referencing his latest New York exhibition, "The Word-Shimmering Sea," which showcases a set of his own mixed media paintings layered over pages taken straight from his childhood notebook and letters penned to his father overseas. The artist projected these emotional letters to create the larger-than-life works, meticulously tracing each childhood pen stroke over with charcoal so as to exactly replicate his childhood handwriting without any external influences acquired as a present-day adult. The exhibition also includes his mother's handwriting. 

These paintings “are a collaboration between myself and a kid that I don’t really know," Martínez Celaya muses. "I know pieces of him…but I couldn’t believe the way my hand moved.” He marvels at how he had drawn trees as a child, and mentions he couldn't easily replicate that technique free-handedly now as an adult artist. He notes childhood inconsistencies and inclusion: all the ships he'd drawn have dolphins running alongside them, for example, and every plane sits empty with no pilot in the cockpit. These are small things he notices now as an unfamiliar adult, that this forgotten child iteration of himself had intentionally included many years ago.

Martínez Celaya uniquely sees his work as utility, and deems himself "interested in the idea of work as an inquiry and exploration - not just of art in its context, but as a mechanism to understand life and ideas, and how they interact with each other.” This makes sense, considering the artist and physicist's prestigious background in science that evolved to a later full devotion of himself to art, due to discovery that the questions he was asking himself were outside the realm of physics. He wanted to explore them further, and turned to art, allowing him to also share this exploration with the viewer.

He notes that in the process of moving, you lose everything you have and gain no real permanence - a feeling any transient will relate to, especially those who experienced this as children. The artist moved to multiple places as a child, due to being born shortly after the Cuban revolution and other personal family circumstances. The waves in these works represent a physical expression of this "inclusion of the washing away of time, the memory and this life that existed" before. "The other world, the world before, is only known through memories and stories without any way to verify it," Martínez Celaya explains. This feeling of transience without roots is "common for a child who has moved, or someone with an irreparable and irretrievable past." Many Cubans will likely deeply relate to this notion.

In fact, the artist considers this showcase and a coexisting current showcase in Cuba right now as "a crazy thing" and sort of personal resume accomplishment. He notes that to have these two shows here and in Cuba coexisting is personally connected in many ways for him, and there is a drawn relationship in the way he approached making the works for these simultaneous showcases as well. This is the last week to see “Los muertos llaman al alba”, his exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba, before it closes May 5th, 2024, and "The Word-Shimmering Sea" will be installed at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York City until the end of May.

Enrique Martínez Celaya is showing "The Word-Shimmering Sea" works alongside works by historic Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, which Martínez Celaya candidly says caused him to "walk in and shiver" when he first witnessed the installation at the Hispanic Society building in-person. His art in the same room as Velázquez's was an overwhelming honour for him. Martínez Celaya's collection includes images hung around the room of a young girl, inspired by Velázquez's "Portrait of a little girl," holding objects from the artist's own past and letters' references in a way of martyrdom. He explains that these works express his hope that these relics become permanent - the girl's expression changes based on what she is holding and its meanings to Martínez Celaya as a child penning these pages.

The artist notes on permanence that he also only had one chance to render these paintings from the start when creating these works, compared to his usual process of repainting often. This led to am inherent decisiveness in the sealed charcoal technique he used.

The charcoal and paint works are accompanied by ceiling projections above the exhibit, with elements of dictation from Martínez Celaya's notebooks. Mirroring the sky with stars that domes above many classical cathedrals, Martínez Celaya looks to animate the unreachable notebook behind glass walls at the museum: “what’s hovering over us is that which can’t be spoken, which is out of reach. You can see the objects, but the implicit aspects of what they represent in terms of the displacement and disconnection…the attempts of language to hold something graspable," make these projections feel within reach in this way.

Whimsical paper boats hang below at eye-level in the museum arches, surrounding Velázquez's historic work. Crafted by children at a primary school in Cuba, the boats were collected by the artist as he was invited to return to Cuba recently for an exhibition at the Cuba National Museum - a meaningful show due to the serendipity of Cuba as the country he left so long ago as a child due to exile.

Enrique Martínez Celaya states, "I never enter an exhibition thinking 'I’m this type of artist, I make this type of paintings.' It has to be with a feeling, able to adapt and change based on the story you’re telling." This exhibit of "The Word-Shimmering Sea" marks a new initiative at the Hispanic Society in New York, led by museum Director and CEO Guillaume Kientz. The aim is to have a living artist take over the museum space and engage in meaningful dialogue on their collection once per month, of which Martínez Celaya is the first. When the museum opened in 1908, it opened with living artists, but has since lost this initiative - now reborn. Kientz notes that many museums are not relatable to children, and “this magic of time and transcending geography can only happen through art,” inspiring them to engage more young people within the community. As for Martínez Celaya, he says, “I’m never interested in my story or confessions - because I already know my story. It’s about the inquiries,” and the exploration of new topics and projection of oneself into the other." Similar to the little girl from Velázquez's painting (who served as a type of confidante for him as a child,) perhaps Martínez Celaya's own works can continue this tradition as a confidante to inspire more young people in liminal spaces both in New York City and beyond.

"The Word-Shimmering Sea" will be on exhibit in Manhattan at The Hispanic Society Museum and Library through the end of May. Don't miss Enrique Martínez Celaya's compelling story of letters full of desire to express to his father his growth into a proper young man, hopeful gift requests, anecdotes of home while separated, and the emotional wait for the Iberia plane to transport him to Spain for an anticipated reunion. Not rooted in Cuba while waiting for the exit to Spain, and not yet rooted in Spain while waiting for that fated airplane, Martínez Celaya perfectly captures a capsule of emotion that crosses time and space which anyone familiar with liminal spaces will find deeply meaningful relation to.

Enrique Martínez Celaya is a multi-faceted creative and esteemed academic whose work has been exhibited and collected by major institutions worldwide. An artist, author, and former physicist, Martínez Celaya has produced acclaimed works that are held in 57 public collections internationally to date, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. He has authored nine books, and is Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts at the University of Southern California as well as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, following other positions within academics held previously. Martínez Celaya has won numerous awards within the art and academia world. 

The artist was born in Cuba and raised in Spain and Puerto Rico, inspiring his works for “The Word-Shimmering Sea” and others. He initiated his formal artistic training as an apprentice to a painter at the age of 12. He also received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics with minors in Electrical Engineering and Spanish Literature from Cornell University, and a Master of Science with a specialization in Quantum Electronics from the University of California, Berkeley, conducting part of his graduate physics research at Brookhaven National Laboratory and holding several patents in laser devices. 

Enrique Martínez Celaya attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and earned an MFA with the department's highest distinction from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was also a Regents Fellow and Junior Fellow of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center. In 1998, Martínez Celaya created Whale & Star as an evolving idea of social interaction and responsibility, whose imprint is internationally recognized for its books in art, poetry, art practice, and critical theory. He has offered lectures at venues worldwide, including the American Academy in Berlin, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Royal Drawing School in London, and the Aspen Institute. 

Notable projects and exhibitions include the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., the Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy, the Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba, and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Germany, among many others. 

CREDITS

Artist: Enrique Martínez Celaya @studioenriquemartinezcelaya

Also featuring works by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez.

Venue: The Hispanic Society Museum & Library (NYC)

PR: Andrey & Melissa (A&M) @andreyandmelissa