Celeste Dupuy-Spencer (1979-2026)

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Los Angeles Art Shows, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Apr 142026
 

“Early Snow – Rhinecliff Hotel”, 2017, oil on canvas

“Durham, August 14, 2017”, 2017, oil on canvas

American painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer passed away last week at the age of 46. The images above are from her 2017 exhibition Wild and Blue at Marlborough gallery in NYC. She had also been part of the Whitney Biennial earlier that same year.

The first painting is of the Rhinecliff Hotel, a bar she frequented while growing up in Rhinebeck, NY. The second, Durham, August 14, 2017, is of the metal confederate statue that protesters tore down that year. That painting was also included in her section of Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum‘s biennial exhibition of artists from the Los Angeles area. Her later work was often very political, including several paintings that are dense with imagery.

In this 2018 Bomb magazine interview, Dupuy-Spencer discusses some of her past struggles and provides insights into her practice.

Her first solo exhibition in five years, Burning in the Eyes of the Maker, will open at Deitch in Los Angeles this Saturday, 4/18/26.

Throwback- NYC Art Shows- Whitney Biennial 2017- Raúl de Nieves

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Collage, Conceptual Art, Fashion, Fiber Arts, Installation Art, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Sculptors / Sculpture
Aug 292024
 

“Somos Monstros 2”, 2016

The work above was part of Raúl de Nieves’ large installation created for the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

From the museum about his work-

For his site-specific work for the 2017 Biennial, Raúl de Nieves covered six floor-to-ceiling windows with eighteen “stained-glass” panels he made using paper, wood, glue, tape, beads, and acetate sheets. The windows create a vivid backdrop for de Nieves’s elaborately beaded sculptures, some of which are based on shoes (but are adorned to the point of abstraction), while others take the form of figures draped in heavy costumes worn by the artist in his performances.

In all of his work, de Nieves treats modest materials with meticulous attention, turning the mundane into the fantastical—with metamorphosis a common theme. The windows depict a world in which death and waste are omnipresent, often symbolized by a fly. Unlike many Western spiritual traditions, however, de Nieves presents death as a metaphor for the possibility of spectacular transformation and rebirth in an unpredictable and turbulent world.

Fashion magazine W interviewed the artist about the work- here.