Selena Engelhart grew up in Berkeley CA in the socially tumultuous 60’s. Her California native father is a jazz pianist and metal percussion instrument maker. Her Mexican mother worked tirelessly for social justice and managed her father’s instrument business. Her family home was overflowing with the creative energy of numerous visiting international musicians and artists. As a youth she studied piano and spent numerous hours drawing and painting. Her home environment made it inevitable that Selena would pursue a life in the arts.

As a young woman Selena lived in Mexico City where she continued her music studies, and was inspired by the art and spirituality of the Mayan and Aztec cultures. This sojourn, among others, inspired her to study art more formally.  She enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts where she won a scholarship to Cooper Union in New York City. There she produced a large body of work influenced by the art of Willem De Kooning and Jean- Michel Basquiat. This was a period where she was able to explore different media and how her cultural iconography could be illuminated through her art. She was also deeply inspired by the powerful earthworks of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta.  She completed her formal education in 1997 with an MFA from Mills College in Oakland. 

Selena refers to her work as visual music . The sacred art of the Huichol Indians of Mexico influenced her as a child and today resonates with her identity as a painter of cosmology and dreams. Her in-depth studies of astrology, the tarot and metaphysics adds to her archetypal imagery. And although she struggles with questions of identity, the blending of two cultures is still fundamental to her world view and artistic vision.

Along with oil paintings and collage, Selena’s most recent work includes a new series of ink drawings that explore personal iconography such as animals, trees, dreams, light and dark, life and death.

Selena started visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico when she was 11 years old, and settled there in 1987. She finds that living in the high desert and its beauty is a catalyst for her ability to tap into the depths of her creativity. 

• 2022:  Artist License Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 
• 2022:  In Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 
• 2021: (September) “Brand 49 National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper,” Branch Library, Glendale, CA
• 2018:  “Solo Show”   Harry’s Road House, Santa Fe, NM
• 2016: “Ink Drawings from My Diaries,” Community Media Center of Marin, Marin County, CA
• Oct.2014:   “Fifty Paintings”      Berkeley Festival Arts Bldg., Berkeley, CA
• 2001:   “Cosmology”  Atomic Cafe, Santa Fe NM. 2010
• 2001- 2007:  “Get It Together” Salon Show,  Santa Fe, NM
• 2002 “Water is my Spring”  Berkeley Arts Center, Berkeley, CA.
• 1997: MFA Graduate Exhibition, Mills College, Oakland, CA
• 1995:  “Paintings and Drawings”   Circle of Life Women’s Center, Berkeley, CA
• 1995:  “The Nueva York Paintings”   Cafe Milano, Berkeley, CA
• 1994: “Yellow Skull”  Cooper Union School of Art, NY,NY
• 1994: “Nomad Looking Back,” Isabel Percy West Gallery, Oakland, CA
• 1994: “Reclining in a Dream,” Davis Bynum Winery, Healdsburg, CA