Enrique Martínez Celaya

Enrique Martínez Celaya was born in Cuba on June 9, 1964, and spent his early childhood on the island. In 1972 his family moved to Madrid, and later to the United States. He began an apprenticeship with a painter at 12, and at 16 he built a laser that earned national recognition.

He studied applied physics at Cornell University and did graduate work in quantum electronics at the University of California, Berkeley. Before committing fully to art, he received patents and published scientific papers on laser physics and superconductivity. He went on to earn an MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

His practice spans painting, sculpture, installation and writing, and explores memory, exile and the passage of time. He has created projects for the State Hermitage Museum, The Phillips Collection, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, and his work is in more than 60 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney and LACMA. He has written nine books on art, philosophy and poetry.

He is the first Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts in the history of the University of Southern California. In 2026 he created "The Things We Know," a hand-painted, roughly 70-foot-wide curtain for LA Opera's 2026/27 season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.