OAKLAND, CA.-揝everal solo shows over the past few years have identified Enrique Mart韓ez Celaya as an artist of formidable intelligence and great poetic capacity.� Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times. Over the past decade, the prolific Cuban-born painter, sculptor, photographer, poet, and writer Enrique Mart韓ez Celaya has become recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation. His largely figurative works mine the transient world of time and memory, identity and displacement, in images ranging from a body emerging from a murky landscape to a head in silhouette with spots of blood. In Enrique Mart韓ez Celaya. Works on Paper, the Oakland Museum of California presents the first show devoted to this aspect of the artist抯 work. Works on Paper continues through March 26, 2006.

Enrique Mart韓ez Celaya is best known for his large paintings and sculpture of startling graphic impact that often focus on isolated body fragments梐 head, a hand, an arm. This intimate installation of approximately 20 works on paper reveals an important but little explored aspect of Mart韓ez Celaya抯 work, according to Karen Tsujimoto, senior curator of art.

揟his exhibition makes clear how key these 憁editations on paper� are to the artist: they exist conceptually between his writings and his other visual works,� Tsujimoto explains.

揅ollectively seen, they form an evocative visual diary, recording not only Mart韓ez Celaya抯 creative intuitions, but his own private pilgrimage toward growth and change.�

Mart韓ez Celaya抯 self-described identity as an exile, his Catholic upbringing, and his aptitude for science have played major roles in his life. Born in Cuba in 1964, he was uprooted at age eight to live in Spain. Three years later his family moved to Puerto Rico, where he was apprenticed to a painter. He excelled at science, but his painting helped him understand the turmoil in his world.

Mart韓ez Celaya came to the U.S. in 1982 for graduate studies in applied physics and quantum electronics, and earned degrees at Cornell and UC Berkeley, respectively. On the brink of completing a doctorate in physics, he ultimately chose art, and earned an M.F.A. from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994.

Since his first solo exhibition, Black Paintings, at the UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, in 1994, Mart韓ez Celaya has exhibited in Europe, Latin America, and throughout the U.S. His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Art, Houston. Mart韓ez Celaya has taught at universities in California and throughout the U.S., and published and edited several books of fiction, poetry, science, and philosophy.