Enrique Martínez Celaya’s work takes on a multitude of forms ranging from austere gestures to mystical scenes brought to life through series of epic paintings, sculptures, photography, poetry and other writings, often presented in evocative and ambitious environments. Martínez Celaya has a strong intellectual approach to his work inspired by writers and philosophers Maurice Maeterlinck, Leo Tolstoy, Harry Martinson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and many more.
Born in 1964 in Habana, shortly after the end of the Cuban Revolution, his family migrated to Spain and later Puerto Rico. In his youth he was passionate about science, and went on to study applied physics and pursue a Ph.D. in quantum electronics at the University of California-Berkeley. His focus soon turned towards art, which led to receiving a Master of Fine Arts at the University of California-Santa Barbara. His work as an artist continues to bear the influence of his scientific training in his rigorous methods and inexhaustible curiosity.
Martínez Celaya lives and works in California, with studio space in LA, and he works on commissions and exhibitions all over the world. He is represented in 27 museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum der Bildenden Künste in Leipzig. He is a passionate teacher as well as a writer and editor in the fields of science and culture.