Celeste Dupuy-Spencer
b. 1979, New York
Lives in Los Angeles
Venue
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
925 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Monday–Sunday, 10 AM – 5 PM
Neighborhood
Downtown/Central Business District (CBD)
About the project
The work of Celeste Dupuy-Spencer grapples with the subtle and horrific violence of white supremacy in the United States through history painting, of a past both real and imagined. The suite of paintings on view here are fantastical depictions of this reality envisioned across time. They range from the retelling of a New Testament story about demons to an image of military conquest, from revealing the intertwined nature of whiteness and Christianity to scenes of the end of the world. Notably, Don’t You See That I Am Burning was painted following the insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. This wild, detailed painting references historical works as well as images drawn directly from news coverage of this event. In looking across centuries and into the future, Dupuy-Spencer asks us to contend with the legacies of terror and violence that birthed this nation, forged its ideology, and continue to shape our political and social lives.
In addition to large-scale, grandiose history paintings, Dupuy-Spencer also paints portraits, scenes of everyday life, and landscapes. The artist has family from New Orleans, and she spent time in the city during her formative years. Her intimate knowledge of the area is conveyed in the painting hung just outside this gallery, Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (2017), which captures this local landmark and the roiling skies that can lay low over the city, recasting the water and light that surrounds the bridge into a surreal setting.
About the artist
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer is an American painter, born in New York, and now residing in Los Angeles via New Orleans. Dupuy-Spencer’s paintings depict both mundane glimpses of life: intimate moments with a partner, meals shared with family, portraits of friends in informal settings, all captured with snapshot-like quality, as well as epic scenes of religious transformation and fantastical scenes of destruction. Her paintings possess enormous depth and life, transforming routine moments into compelling statements, and making palpable the terror and spectacle of violence. Many layers of storytelling leap from the canvas as viewers are brought into the ecstatic and critical lenses with which Dupuy-Spencer views her subjects, which include her family and ancestral ties to New Orleans. Her work often addresses entrenched American narratives and values, taking on––often from a personal standpoint––questions of religion, race, and privilege. Her work has appeared in major group exhibitions including the Whitney Biennial 2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at Marlborough Contemporary, New York and Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, and will have a 2020 solo exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin. Dupuy-Spencer received a BFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2007).
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, 2021. Installation view: Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, 2021–22. Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans. Courtesy Prospect New Orleans. Photo: Jonathan Traviesa