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Enrique Martinez Celaya's "Untitled" (Two Goats) Shown By John Berggruen Gallery At Art Basel Miami Beach 2012

1/22/2013

Enrique Martinez Celaya is a Cuban artist whose work has been discussed here before--probably even earlier this year. His background is not only in art but in electronics. Find out more at his page on the J ohn Berggruen Gallery website.

This piece, Untitled (Two Goats), sort of fell through the cracks during the first look at pieces shown by Berggruen at Art Basel Miami Beach 2012.

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Enrique Gomez de Molina's "Taking The Bull By The Horns" & "Secretariat In Lamb's Clothing"

12/28/2011

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If Luis Bunuel had been a sculptor I imagine he would have made works like Enrique Gomez de Molina. Not just because of the style but the heartlessness involved in making the pieces (I love Bunuel's movies but, they are not warm and fuzzy). If you stood near these pieces for any time you would be sure to notice multiple people--of all ages-- reacting to them. In most cases there were smiles, sometimes giggles. There was one young woman who, looking at the bull, exclaimed; "They don't have horns like that!" At the same moment she noticed this bull also has feathers.

Gomez de Molina's art, his taxidermy, is not without controversy. He pled guilty to importing endangered animal parts for his creations in 2011 and he awaits sentencing in the early spring of 2012. If the artist really feels truly sad, as he says, that exotic creatures are vanishing from the earth, he might consider finding another way to go about making his admittedly remarkable art.

Animals he admits to importing parts from incllude; orangutan, slow loris, Java kingfisher and cobra. He could be fined around $250,000 which is not much of a deterrent as his pieces have sold for six figures. Five years in jail is also on the table. If he were a homeless guy digging up turtle eggs? He might get that sort of time but I expect he has better attorneys.

If you search around enough on the internet you will see many in sympathy with him because the work is so beautiful and suggesting he deserves no punishment. So art trumps the real world? Endangered animals should be gutted and sold so people can hang them in their living rooms? Not sure that makes a great deal of sense.

This work was shown by Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. There was similar work, made without cruelty from Spinello Gallery in Miami last year (either at Art Miami or Scope Miami).

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Enrique Martinez Celaya's "Untitled" (Two Goats) Shown By John Berggruen Gallery At Art Basel Miami Beach 2012

Enrique Gomez de Molina's "Taking The Bull By The Horns" & "Secretariat In Lamb's Clothing"

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