LAMAMIMET

Celeste Thais Dupuy-Spencer was born on December 22, 1979, in New York City to artist Coco Dupuy and novelist Scott Spencer, and grew up in Rhinebeck, New York. She earned a BFA from Bard College in 2007, where she studied under painter Nicole Eisenman, and later based herself in Los Angeles.

Dupuy-Spencer began exhibiting in 2007, gaining recognition for her bold, colorful figurative paintings that often addressed contemporary social themes. Her work appeared in notable shows such as Queer Fantasy (2015), solo exhibitions at Nino Mier Gallery (2016, 2018) and Marlborough Gallery (2017), and she was selected for the 2017 Whitney Biennial and the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. (2018). Her paintings entered major collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, and she continued to receive critical acclaim, with curators predicting she would become one of her generation’s great painters.

Identifying as trans and rejecting gendered pronouns, Dupuy-Spencer was also known for her candid discussions of identity and cultural background. She remained an atheist raised in a culturally Jewish family. Celeste Dupuy-Spencer died on April 10, 2026, at the age of 46, leaving a lasting impact on contemporary painting through her vibrant imagery and fearless engagement with topical subjects.