HOST: Celeste
Austin, USA. March 2023
Text by Robin K. Williams, Curator, The Contemporary Austin.
Celeste’s exhibition presents a new large-scale textile painting, created
specifically for the HOST gallery, as well as two new wall-mounted
copper sculptures. The painting portrays an abstracted landscape
evoking an expansive geographical terrain where earth meets sky.
Hanging from a ceiling-mounted curtain rod and tracing a gentle
curve across the gallery, the painting comprises five conjoined fabric
panels together measuring approximately forty feet long. Across from
the painting and complementing its long arc is an artist-designed
bench, offering a place for visitors to sit and linger in the space.
The artists take inspiration from the vital history of murals in their
hometown of Mexico City, including how these murals traditionally
functioned to shape public space and communicate through images.
In developing the painting’s complex imagery, they observed
numerous murals throughout the city, paying attention to
compositional devices such as the use of vignettes to organize
depictions of events in space and time. The artists also maintain
a critical distance on this history, in which murals were typically
commissioned by the government and served to indoctrinate the
public into official views. Celeste’s practice challenges this history
in creating welcoming environments using portable, flexible canvases
with imagery that accommodates innumerable interpretations.
Inspired by symbolic imagery, in which figures may convey numerous
meanings, as well as a form of counseling called narrative therapy,
which holds that the stories we tell shape the worlds we inhabit,
the artists invite visitors to tell their own stories through the work’s
evocative yet deliberately open-ended images.
The artists designed the installation as a space that can accommodate
community programs. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the gallery
will be activated through programming on the first Wednsday of
each month. In addition, Celeste’s project includes educational and
community programming at both museum locations and a duallanguage
artist book produced by the artists and The Contemporary.
Austin, USA. March 2023
Text by Robin K. Williams, Curator, The Contemporary Austin.
Celeste’s exhibition presents a new large-scale textile painting, created
specifically for the HOST gallery, as well as two new wall-mounted
copper sculptures. The painting portrays an abstracted landscape
evoking an expansive geographical terrain where earth meets sky.
Hanging from a ceiling-mounted curtain rod and tracing a gentle
curve across the gallery, the painting comprises five conjoined fabric
panels together measuring approximately forty feet long. Across from
the painting and complementing its long arc is an artist-designed
bench, offering a place for visitors to sit and linger in the space.
The artists take inspiration from the vital history of murals in their
hometown of Mexico City, including how these murals traditionally
functioned to shape public space and communicate through images.
In developing the painting’s complex imagery, they observed
numerous murals throughout the city, paying attention to
compositional devices such as the use of vignettes to organize
depictions of events in space and time. The artists also maintain
a critical distance on this history, in which murals were typically
commissioned by the government and served to indoctrinate the
public into official views. Celeste’s practice challenges this history
in creating welcoming environments using portable, flexible canvases
with imagery that accommodates innumerable interpretations.
Inspired by symbolic imagery, in which figures may convey numerous
meanings, as well as a form of counseling called narrative therapy,
which holds that the stories we tell shape the worlds we inhabit,
the artists invite visitors to tell their own stories through the work’s
evocative yet deliberately open-ended images.
The artists designed the installation as a space that can accommodate
community programs. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the gallery
will be activated through programming on the first Wednsday of
each month. In addition, Celeste’s project includes educational and
community programming at both museum locations and a duallanguage
artist book produced by the artists and The Contemporary.
Detail view of Hacer Olas, 2023
Hacer olas, 2023
Pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas. 2.7 x .25 x 12 meters/ 108 x 10 x 492 inches.
Installation view, HOST: Celeste, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2023
Artwork © Celeste. Courtesy the artists. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.
Pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas. 2.7 x .25 x 12 meters/ 108 x 10 x 492 inches.
Installation view, HOST: Celeste, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2023
Artwork © Celeste. Courtesy the artists. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.
Installation view of El comienzo del día, 2023 and Hilos de agua, 2023 at The Contemporary Austin. March, 2023.
Hacer olas, 2023
Pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas. 2.7 x .25 x 12 meters/ 108 x 10 x 492 inches.
Installation view, HOST: Celeste, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2023
Artwork © Celeste. Courtesy the artists. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.
Pigments and acrylic base on dyed cotton canvas. 2.7 x .25 x 12 meters/ 108 x 10 x 492 inches.
Installation view, HOST: Celeste, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2023
Artwork © Celeste. Courtesy the artists. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.