Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

Rising to recognition in a post-Trump United States, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer's figurative paintings are intertwined with the existential grapplings of contemporary life in America. Dupuy-Spencer grew up rural upstate New York and settled in Los Angeles, where she creates works that variably depict her intimate relationships with friends and family, as well as scenes and communities that capture entangled identities, contradictions, and conflicts of the present day—what gallery Nino Mier described as “deeply layered, microcosmic narratives that speak to the ever-evolving nature of America.” Dupuy-Spencer's Don’t You See That I Am Burning (2021) channels the influence of James Ensor and Tintoretto into a charged rendering of the January 6th capitol riot, and in 2022 it was acquired by the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington DC. The trajectory of Dupuy-Spencer’s ascent included being named a standout of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, and her works were included in the 2018 Made In L.A. biennial at the Hammer Museum. As Christopher Knight reflected of her works featured in the latter, “The quirky paintings, touchingly civilized, are a gentle but firm avowal of humanity during extraordinarily trying times.”