About the Artist
Biography
Elena Climent was born in Mexico City in 1955. Her father was the Spanish artist Enrique Climent. She developed as a staunchly independent self-taught artist while living in Mexico, Spain, France, and the United States.
Climent initiated her professional career with a 1972 exhibit. In 1988 she had a solo show at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and moved to New York City shortly thereafter. From 1992 to 2005 she was represented by Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art in New York and the Galería de Arte Mexicano in Mexico City. In 2005 Elena Climent turned away from exclusive gallery representation, preferring to work as an independent artist and to complement her easel painting with a new orientation to public art projects. Her most recent accomplishment in that field is a 60 foot wide mural titled ‘At Home with Their Books,’ that is on permanent exhibition at New York University’s Languages and Literatures building.
Climent’s work in oil, watercolor and drawing has received wide critical acclaim in the United States, Latin America and Europe. Her work has been exhibited in museums and acquired for important collections internationally. Elena Climent’s painting is appreciated for rendering an uncanny intimacy that adheres to mass-produced objects when they are adopted, forgotten, or discarded. Climent has her permanent studio in New York City.
Resume
| SOLO EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2004-5 | “Lateral Altars” Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art New York |
| 2003 | Elena Climent: Nichos, Velas, Flores, Consejo de la Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, San Pedro Cholula |
| 2002 | La Hora de la Siesta, Casa de la Cultura Reyes Heroles, Mexico City |
| 2002 | Childhood, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York. |
| 2001 | La hora de la siesta, Galería GAM, Mexico City, and Centro Cultural de Coyoacán, Mexico City. |
| 1998-2001 | Antología, Oleos y acuarelas, Museo Biblioteca Pape, Monclova, Coahuila (This exhibition traveled to: Instituto Coahuila de Cultura, Saltillo, Coahuila, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Centre Culturel Du Mexique, Paris, Instituto Cultural Mexicano de la Embajada de México, Vienna, Instituto Mexicano, Madrid, Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington D.C., Arte de Mexico Gallery, The Mexican Cultural and Educational Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois under the title Ventanas de mi Memoria) and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico. |
| 2000 | Windows from Here to Then, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York |
| 1997 | To My Parents, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York |
| 1995 | Re-encounters, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York |
| 1993 | Elena Climent, En Busca del Presente, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City |
| 1992 | Elena Climent, In Search of the Present, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York |
| 1988 | Flor de asfalto, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City |
| 1983 | Acuarelas, Galería el Grillo y el Oso, Mexico City |
| 1982 | El tiempo detenido, Galería Metropolitana, Mexico City |
| 1978 | Galería San Angel, Mexico City |
| 1977 | Galería Helen Lavista, Mexico City |
| 1976 | Galería Casa de las Campanas, Cuernavaca, Mexico |
| 1972 | Galería Helen Lavista, Mexico City |
| GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Selected list) | |
| 2000-2004 | Gelman Collection. This collection has been traveling to museums since 2000, including the Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, the San Diego County Museum, the Seattle Museum of Art, the Museo del Barrio, New York, the Galería Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, among others. The show will open in January 2003 at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago. |
| 2001 | Entremundos: Jewish Artists from Latin America, Singer Gallery, Mizel Cultural Arts Center, Denver, Colorado |
| 2000 | VI Salón de Arte, Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer |
| 1996-97 | Salon de Triumfadores: 30 Años de Arte Joven, Museo de Aguascalientes, Mexico. (This exhibition traveled to : Foro de Arte y Cultura, Guadalajara; Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispado, Mexico City; Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey) |
| 1996-97 | Lazos y Nexos: The Legacy of María Izquierdo, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago |
| 1996 | Innata Natura: Pintura Mexicana Contemporánea, Feria Arco, Madrid, organized by Galería del Arte Mexicano, Mexico City. (This exhibition traveled to Galerie Rahn, Zurich) |
| 1995-96 | Espíritu, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, California |
| 1995 | Latin American Women Artists 1915-1995, Milwaukee Art Museum (This exhibition is traveled to the Phoenix Art Museum; The Denver Art Museum; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and the Center for the Fine Arts, Miami) |
| 1994 | Paper Visions V, Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, CT |
| 1994 | Miradas Femininas, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Aguascalientes, Mexico |
| 1994 | Art Miami '94, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami |
| 1993 | Regards de femmes (As part of the Europalia Biennial '93 ), Musee d'Art Moderne, Liege (Belgium) |
| 1992 | Contemporary Museum, San Diego |
| 1991 | Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
| 1991 | The Earth Itself (Part I of Mexico: Thirty Centuries Later ), Parallel Project Gallery, Santa Monica |
| 1991 | La Mujer en México, Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, and Museo de Monterrey |
| 1990 | Women in Mexico, National Academy of Design, New York |
| 1989 | Current Arrivals, New York, _MOCHA |
| 1988 | Latin American Group Show, Chicago, Nicole Gallery |
| 1984 | Bienal de Dibujo, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City |
| 1984 | Galería Metropolitana, Mexico City |
| 1980 | Galería San Angel, Mexico City |
| 1974 | Galería Helen Lavista, Mexico City |