Gaspar Enriquez

Gaspar Enriquez (born 1942) is an American artist known for creating photorealist portraits, primarily of people of Chicano heritage. He uses the airbrush technique in his paintings. Enriquez is also a sculptor and a jewelry maker who works in metal.

According to the Museum of Art in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Enríquez "has been at the forefront of the national Chicano art movement for over fifty years," and his realistic portraits "show the humanity of the El Paso Chicano community and the tensions they face when living in a two-culture environment." Enríquez’s Chicano heritage "reflects his life experiences, the urban environment, and the people of his hometown. His compassionate nature allows him to capture his subject’s humanity and forces the viewer to look deeply at his subjects." graduating with a bachelor's degree in arts education. He then went on to attend New Mexico State University, Many of his students served as models for his paintings, some of which are very large in scale.

Enríquez began painting with airbrush in the 1980s, and these paintings "celebrate cultural traditions from Mexico such as the charreada and baile folklorico or folk dances, while his skill as a metal smith can be seen in his Familia Album, a book-like work that contains etched reproductions of childhood photographs. images from the barrio,

After his retirement from teaching, Enriquez has continued to concentrate on art making and on restoring historic adobe structures, including the 400-year-old presidio of San Elizario in El Paso's Mission Valley, in which he is creating artist's studios.

In 2023, he had a retrospective at the Museum of Art in Las Cruces, New Mexico called "Gaspar Enríquez: Chicano Pride, Chicano Soul."

Examples of Enriquez's work can be found in Cheech Marin's collection of Chicano art housed at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry.

Personal life Enriquez lives in San Elizario, Texas.

La Rosa Dolorosa de Mi Vida Loca, 1995, mixed media installation, 10 x 8 x 4 feet.

Tirando Rollo (I Love You) (triptych) 1999, acrylic on paper.

Elegy on the Death of César Chávez, 2000, acrylic on paper (airbrush), 36 x 48 inches, El Paso Museum of Art.

Color Harmony en la Esquina, 2002, acrylic on aluminum panels (airbrush), 24 x 24 feet, San Antonio Convention Center.

Collections Albuquerque Museum Of Art and History

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, Riverside California.

Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art

de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

El Paso Museum Of Art

Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

New Mexico State University

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Hispanic Writer’s Collection, Texas State University

Tucson Museum Of Art