b. 1979, New York, NY, US
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer moves between styles, gestures, and genres of painting to interrogate how various structures of power such as patriarchy inform the American experience. Through seemingly fast brushwork, Dupuy-Spencer imbues each painting with a sense of existential grappling, as the resulting figures and scenes are at once terror-filled yet full of tenderness. Communities are depicted in all their contradictions and repressions—but also in their displays of solidarity, hope and love, as figures coalesce in domestic spaces, churches, and on neighborhood streets. The artist captures these deeply layered, microcosmic narratives that speak to the ever-evolving nature of America.
Dupuy-Spencer grew up in rural upstate New York and briefly relocated to New Orleans before settling in Los Angeles. These geographic distances fuel her depictions of friends, family, lovers and colleagues. In the personalized vision of the artist's paintings, each character is teems with specificity. While often using photographs as a starting point, her paintings are many times tainted and informed by the fallibility of memory and underlying emotions. Dupuy-Spencer's epic paintings contain enormous depth and life where subtle moments are transformed into compelling statements on race, religion and privilege.
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer (b. 1979, New York, NY, US; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US) received a BFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in 2007. Dupuy-Spencer has had recent solo exhibitions with Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, US; Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, DE; and Marlborough Contemporary, New York, US. Dupuy-Spencer was included in the Hammer Museum’s 2018 presentation of Made in L.A, as well as the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The artist’s work is represented in public collections including the Aïshti Foundation, LB; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, US; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, US; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US.
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