Born in Mexico City, Elena Climent is known for detailed still lifes of common place objects of contemporary Mexico. Examples of this in her work are scenes of home altars, photographs, candles, small shop interiors, family pets, food container items, and plastic toys. Unlike many of her contemporaries, her work is not despairing but is honest and genuine, accepting of reality without attempting to change it.

Her oil painting is highly symbolic of events in her own life including the rhythms of Mexico City and the tensions she feels from the ethnic mix of her parentage. Her father, Enrique Climent, was a Spanish artist and an exile from the Spanish Civil War who came to Mexico in 1939. Her mother was from a Jewish family and was rai...