Celeste Dupuy-Spencer Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
My paintings are informed by social practice, friendship, and also from art history. I naturally think and paint in terms of narratives, but am most interested in what is being left out, what has been omitted or only suggested. My paintings gravitate towards and imply a narrative, they also resist any obvious linear storyline. My relationships and alliances, both specific but also general or abstract, are themes which drive the work, and I use the activity of painting as a way of honoring a conversation, often private, or interpreting a transitory moment. While the compositions often reference art history, I am also actively searching for a new way of making paintings.
For example, my painting "Tarot" which, while holding on to a sense of being specific and personal, is openly influenced by Caravaggio's "The Calling of Saint Matthew", which depicts Matthew at the moment that he is called to join the apostles. But what would it look like if Saint Matthew were a lesbian? He would probably be called on by a Witch instead. I am confronted with questions of Queerness and its relationship to figurative painting, the struggle to make the painting not rely upon the storyline to bring forth its alterity. I combine the queer narrative with the awkwardness or weirdness of form, uneasy perspectives, and I try to highlight the potential of using spacial relationships to create the psychology of the narratives. Everyday affairs like eating, smoking and hanging out are complicated by figures that are cropped from the shoulders up, mirror each other, or dissolve into blocks of paint, transforming the everyday into the aberrant.
I am explicitly interested working with memory as a key factor, and, while it plays a significant role in all of my work, it comes into specific play in the newest series "The Butches Of My Youth" (still in process), which is a series of small gouache paintings, painted from memory of the butches from my childhood who, at the time remained to be intrinsically invisible to small town USA, and also to me. Their bodies were in constant conflict with the world, so much so that it nearly canceled them out. These paintings come from a recollective search into my anamnesis because I have a desire to look locate them inside my subconscious as a way of reviving and honoring the impact that they had on me as invisible yet withstanding archetypes of (my) otherness.
I operate under conviction that paintings of the everyday and the personal can transcend the limits of closed conversation and, through triggering recognitions and reactions, can participate in a grander narrative.
My paintings are informed by social practice, friendship, and also from art history. I naturally think and paint in terms of narratives, but am most interested in what is being left out, what has been omitted or only suggested. My paintings gravitate towards and imply a narrative, they also resist any obvious linear storyline. My relationships and alliances, both specific but also general or abstract, are themes which drive the work, and I use the activity of painting as a way of honoring a conversation, often private, or interpreting a transitory moment. While the compositions often reference art history, I am also actively searching for a new way of making paintings.
For example, my painting "Tarot" which, while holding on to a sense of being specific and personal, is openly influenced by Caravaggio's "The Calling of Saint Matthew", which depicts Matthew at the moment that he is called to join the apostles. But what would it look like if Saint Matthew were a lesbian? He would probably be called on by a Witch instead. I am confronted with questions of Queerness and its relationship to figurative painting, the struggle to make the painting not rely upon the storyline to bring forth its alterity. I combine the queer narrative with the awkwardness or weirdness of form, uneasy perspectives, and I try to highlight the potential of using spacial relationships to create the psychology of the narratives. Everyday affairs like eating, smoking and hanging out are complicated by figures that are cropped from the shoulders up, mirror each other, or dissolve into blocks of paint, transforming the everyday into the aberrant.
I am explicitly interested working with memory as a key factor, and, while it plays a significant role in all of my work, it comes into specific play in the newest series "The Butches Of My Youth" (still in process), which is a series of small gouache paintings, painted from memory of the butches from my childhood who, at the time remained to be intrinsically invisible to small town USA, and also to me. Their bodies were in constant conflict with the world, so much so that it nearly canceled them out. These paintings come from a recollective search into my anamnesis because I have a desire to look locate them inside my subconscious as a way of reviving and honoring the impact that they had on me as invisible yet withstanding archetypes of (my) otherness.
I operate under conviction that paintings of the everyday and the personal can transcend the limits of closed conversation and, through triggering recognitions and reactions, can participate in a grander narrative.
CV
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer (1979) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Education
BFA, Bard College, 2007
2006 Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship
EXHIBITIONS
2011
Dance/Draw, (together with Ulrike Müller,The institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Boston Mass.
CELESTE, LEIDY, NICOLE, curated by Lauren Cornell, Museum 52, New York, NY
The Page Turners, FiveMyles, Brooklyn NY
Small Works for a Big Change SRLP, Jack Studios, New York, NY
Emily Roysdon’s. A Gay Bar Called Everywhere (With Costumes and No Practice), The Kitchen, New York, NY
2010
I am a feMENist, (with MEN), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.
Now Playing, (with MEN), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
In Shadow Box, Galerie Crystal Ball, Berlin, Germany
B.Y.O.P., 28 Holden St., North Adams, MA
St-Gervais / Mapping Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
2009
Ridykeulous Hits Bottom, Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte, New York, NY (Curators: A.L. Steiner & Nicole Eisenman)
Girl Monster, Breite Str. 78, Hamburg, Germany
Sessions, Taxter & Spengeman, New York, NY
If You Can’t Find A Partner, Use a Wooden Chair, American Donut, Miami, FL
DiSoRgAnIzEd (Another 24 Hours), Museum 52, New York, NY (together w/ A.L. Steiner)
Dome Colony, Hogan Community, (Together with Friends of the Fine Arts), X- Initiative, New York, NY
The Collection of Silence, (Together w/ Friends of the Fine Arts) , Dia Art Foundation, Hispanic Society, New York, NY (curated by Eileen Myles)
NY Art Book Fair, The Classroom (Together w/ Friends of the Fine Arts), PS1 Contemporary Arts Center, Long Island City, NY
2008
Pink and Bent, (Together w/ Ginger Brooks -Takahashi) Leslie Loheman Gallery, New York, NY
Balenciaga for Artists, Ridykeulous Event, Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, PS1, New York, NY
Making It Together (Ridykeulous: That Looks Really Cute On You), Bronx Museum, The Bronx, NY
2007
Shared Women, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (Curators: Emily Roysdon, A.L. Steiner, Eve Fowler)
Ridykeulous: At Least It’s Not Abstract, The Kitchen, New York, NY (Curators: A.L. Steiner & Nicole Eisenman)
Small Works For a Big Change SRLP, Sarah Metzer, New York, NY
Future 86 24 Hours of Art in the Catskills, Catskill, NY
ONGOING PROJECTS
Friends of the Fine Arts, together with Ulrike Müller, 2008-present
SELECTED LECTURES AND VISITING ARTIST TALKS
2010, Monya Rowe Gallery, Macho Man, Mother Man: Rethinking Masculinity
2009, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York (with Friends of the Fine Arts)
2008, School of Visual Arts, New York
2008, Bard College, Annondale on Hudson, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY/PUBLICATIONS
Picks, Artforum, July, 2011, Joseph Ekel
Review, New York Times, July 14 2011, Karen Rosenberg
Review, New Yorker, July 25 2011
Review, Artnet, July 2011, Alizabeth Kley
Critics Picks, Time Out New York, July, 2011
Monument, A Queer Relational Associative Project Dictionary, Emily Roysdon (together with Jeanine Oleson), 2011
RANDY! Issue 2, 2011
“Macho, MotherMan, Men: Rethinking Masculinity”, IDIOM, January 2011
RANDY! Issue 1, 2010
Sessions : Con Vers Sensations (separately w/ A.L. Steiner and Ulrike Müller), Publication, 2009
“Golden Oldies All Over Chelsea.” The New York Times. December 4, 2009, Holland Cotter
LTTR Positively Nasty Issue 5, 2007
“Don’t Look Back” Artillery. May 20, 2007, Christopher Russel
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer (1979) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Education
BFA, Bard College, 2007
2006 Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship
EXHIBITIONS
2011
Dance/Draw, (together with Ulrike Müller,The institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Boston Mass.
CELESTE, LEIDY, NICOLE, curated by Lauren Cornell, Museum 52, New York, NY
The Page Turners, FiveMyles, Brooklyn NY
Small Works for a Big Change SRLP, Jack Studios, New York, NY
Emily Roysdon’s. A Gay Bar Called Everywhere (With Costumes and No Practice), The Kitchen, New York, NY
2010
I am a feMENist, (with MEN), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.
Now Playing, (with MEN), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
In Shadow Box, Galerie Crystal Ball, Berlin, Germany
B.Y.O.P., 28 Holden St., North Adams, MA
St-Gervais / Mapping Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
2009
Ridykeulous Hits Bottom, Leo Koenig Inc. Projekte, New York, NY (Curators: A.L. Steiner & Nicole Eisenman)
Girl Monster, Breite Str. 78, Hamburg, Germany
Sessions, Taxter & Spengeman, New York, NY
If You Can’t Find A Partner, Use a Wooden Chair, American Donut, Miami, FL
DiSoRgAnIzEd (Another 24 Hours), Museum 52, New York, NY (together w/ A.L. Steiner)
Dome Colony, Hogan Community, (Together with Friends of the Fine Arts), X- Initiative, New York, NY
The Collection of Silence, (Together w/ Friends of the Fine Arts) , Dia Art Foundation, Hispanic Society, New York, NY (curated by Eileen Myles)
NY Art Book Fair, The Classroom (Together w/ Friends of the Fine Arts), PS1 Contemporary Arts Center, Long Island City, NY
2008
Pink and Bent, (Together w/ Ginger Brooks -Takahashi) Leslie Loheman Gallery, New York, NY
Balenciaga for Artists, Ridykeulous Event, Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution, PS1, New York, NY
Making It Together (Ridykeulous: That Looks Really Cute On You), Bronx Museum, The Bronx, NY
2007
Shared Women, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (Curators: Emily Roysdon, A.L. Steiner, Eve Fowler)
Ridykeulous: At Least It’s Not Abstract, The Kitchen, New York, NY (Curators: A.L. Steiner & Nicole Eisenman)
Small Works For a Big Change SRLP, Sarah Metzer, New York, NY
Future 86 24 Hours of Art in the Catskills, Catskill, NY
ONGOING PROJECTS
Friends of the Fine Arts, together with Ulrike Müller, 2008-present
SELECTED LECTURES AND VISITING ARTIST TALKS
2010, Monya Rowe Gallery, Macho Man, Mother Man: Rethinking Masculinity
2009, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York (with Friends of the Fine Arts)
2008, School of Visual Arts, New York
2008, Bard College, Annondale on Hudson, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY/PUBLICATIONS
Picks, Artforum, July, 2011, Joseph Ekel
Review, New York Times, July 14 2011, Karen Rosenberg
Review, New Yorker, July 25 2011
Review, Artnet, July 2011, Alizabeth Kley
Critics Picks, Time Out New York, July, 2011
Monument, A Queer Relational Associative Project Dictionary, Emily Roysdon (together with Jeanine Oleson), 2011
RANDY! Issue 2, 2011
“Macho, MotherMan, Men: Rethinking Masculinity”, IDIOM, January 2011
RANDY! Issue 1, 2010
Sessions : Con Vers Sensations (separately w/ A.L. Steiner and Ulrike Müller), Publication, 2009
“Golden Oldies All Over Chelsea.” The New York Times. December 4, 2009, Holland Cotter
LTTR Positively Nasty Issue 5, 2007
“Don’t Look Back” Artillery. May 20, 2007, Christopher Russel
How to Scare People and Alienate Your Friends, 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
Civiche and Peruvian Meat, 2010, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
Smoked, 2011, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches
Andalusia, AL, 2010, oil on canvas, 35 x 41 inches
Riis Beach, 2010, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
Just My Dog and Me, 2011, 16 x 12 inches
Celebrity, 2011, oil on canvas 30 x 36 inches
Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 20 x 20
Smoked jr, 2011, oil on paper cut out, 12 x 8 inches
Tarot, 2010, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches
Eviction Notice, 2009, oil on canvas, 43 x 72 inches
Untitled, 2010, oil on canvas, 72 x 36 inches
Ham, 2011, ink on paper, 12 x 15.5 inches
The Butches Of My Youth #1, 2011, gouache on paper, 12 x 15.5 inches
The Butches Of My Youth #2, 2011, gouache on paper, 12 x 15.5 inches
The Butches Of My Youth #3, 2011, gouache on paper, 12 x 15.5 inches
Gin, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches
Landsman Kill, 2010, oil on canvas, 72 x 96 inches