Pedro Vélez - Exhibitions

Selected Works

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*Twitter Said*, 2013. Photographic banner, 36 x 51 3/4 in.

*Neoliberal Fire*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, Sharpie, and graphite on raw canvas, 43 x 37 in.

*Death to Patriarchy*, 2013 - 2014. Acrylic, push pins, graphite, and Sharpie on raw canvas, 81 x 63 1/2 in.

*Divorce 2*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, graphite, and Sharpie on raw canvas, 74 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.

*Seated Critic*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, and graphite on raw canvas, 80 x 64 in.

*Critics Are The Public’s Pubes*, 2013. Acrylic, push pins, Sharpie, graphite, collaged canvas, styrofoam, and paper on raw canvas, 106 x 113 1/2 in.

*Whitney Biennial Banners*, 2014, Photographic banner, (1) 50 3/4 x 36 1/4 inches (2) 50 x 36 1/4 in.

*Rat Buffet*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, graphite, and Sharpie on raw canvas, 37 1/2 x 34 1/2 in.

*#Stefansimchowitz Presents*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, Sharpie, and graphite on raw canvas, 106 x 113 1/2 in.

Tri-fold limited edition print run of 300 on 111# porcelain silk cover stock

Tweet of partial view of *#monochromaticartcritics*, 2014 Whitney Biennial. Vinyl, acrylic paint, and painted pushpins, twelve units, dimensions variable.

*#Manchild (theory)*, 2013- 2014. Acrylic, push pins, Sharpie, and graphite on raw canvas, 67.5 x 51.5 in.

*#Manchild (theory)* (detail), 2013- 2014. Acrylic, push pins, Sharpie, and graphite on raw canvas, 67.5 x 51.5 in.

*Portrait of a Beer Banner*, 2008 - 2014. Acrylic, push pins, photoshopped pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 in.

*Portrait of a Beer Banner (detail image)*, 2008 - 2014, Acrylic, push pins, photoshoped pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 inches

*Monument Safari (to Eli Broad)*, 2014. Acrylic, colored pencil in paint, Sunset Tower Hotel stationary, canvas, pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 in.

*Monument Safari (to Eli Broad) (detail image)*, 2014. Acrylic, colored pencil in paint, Sunset Tower Hotel stationary, canvas, pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 in.

*Daydreaming of Protest (at Hotel San Juan)*, 2013. Acrylic, Sharpie, and painted canvas on pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 in.

*Daydreaming of Protest (at Hotel San Juan) (detail image)*, 2013. Acrylic, Sharpie, and painted canvas on pigment print in shadow box frame, 30 x 40 in.

*Push The Press (at El Canario Hotel),* 2013 - 2014. Acrylic on pigment print, 30 x 40 in.

*Push The Press (at El Canario Hotel)* (detail image), 2013 - 2014. Acrylic on pigment print, 30 x 40 in.

*Allegory (to Donald Sterling),* 2014. Acrylic and Clippers tickets on matte poster, 30 x 40 in.

*Allegory (to Donald Stearling) (detail image)*, 2014, Acrylic, clippers tickets, on matte poster, 30 x 40 inches

*Allegory (to Donald Sterling)* (detail image), 2014. Acrylic and Clippers tickets on matte poster, 30 x 40 in.

*Monochromatic Critics* (soundtrack collaboration with Gardy Perez), 2014. Painted CDs, canvas, and acrylic on pigment print, 40 x 30 in.

*Monochromatic Critics* (soundtrack collaboration with Gardy Perez)(detail image), 2014. Painted CDs, canvas, and acrylic on pigment print, 40 x 30 in.

*Moral Soundtrack,* Edition 1/1, Official show soundtrack by Gardy Pérez Ruiz of the artificial shadow band, 2014. Digital recording, 7 tracks, 22:10 mins (included with *Monochomatic Critics*).

*Ransom Note (Annlee)*, 2014. Acrylic, push pins, painted canvas on pigment print, 30 x 40 in.

*Ransom Note (Annlee)* (detail image), 2014. Acrylic, push pins, painted canvas on pigment print, 30 x 40 in.

*Morally Reprehensible*, 2014. Acrylic, Sharpie, collage, and pushpins on a wall, dimensions variable.

101/EXHIBIT proudly presents Morally Reprehensible, a solo exhibition from artist and critic Pedro Vélez. This is the artist’s first showing with the gallery and will include new paintings on canvas, collage, and the artist’s signature banners. A limited edition, tri-fold card designed by Vélez will accompany the exhibition. Additionally, the show will feature a soundtrack by Gardy Pérez, an experimental musician, long time collaborator of Vélez, and leader of the seminal shoegaze band un.real. One copy of the soundtrack will be available and includes a poster/collage based upon the audio.

The opening reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, May 3rd, from 7 – 10pm, and will conclude on July 15th. 101/EXHIBI T is located in West Hollywood at 8920 Melrose Ave on the corner of North Almont Drive, one block south of Santa Monica Blvd. This opening will also serve as the re-launch celebration of 101/EXHIBIT’s original and newly remodeled 1,300 square foot West Hollywood gallery space.

For his first exhibition in Los Angeles, Pedro Vélez will produce a new series of paintings on canvas based on photographs taken by the artist over a period of seven years. These works combine quotes by other art critics, imagery of hotel room views, bits and pieces of personal conversations, and portraits of art world figures and sites to create a visual essay in which beauty, art journalism, social media, race, and political corruption collide.

For those unfamiliar with Pedro Vélez, it is important to consider the immediacy of his artistic process and how it wells up from his strong opinions of today’s social and political ills. Much in the way that Jean-Michel Basquiat, when under the gun for a rapidly approaching exhibition, could switch into a raw and frenetic zone of artistic production, Vélez has the ability to become just as mentally and physically prolific, which allows him to keep content spontaneous, up-to-date, and even revolutionary. Much of Morally Reprehensible is currently being produced during Vélez’s four-week residency at his alma mater Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico, where he earned his degree in communications in 1994.

Vélez makes no claim to be an agent of change. As the old saying goes, “You can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” To curb the often direct whistle-blowing that Vélez concerns himself with, he often applies an invented anti-language to his compositional text work that puts the responsibility in the viewers’ hands to fill in the gaps and develop one’s own opinion on the matter. As a further courtesy, Vélez appeases the culture of looking in which we exist today, as his works also have an undeniable hipness. As many celebrity interior designers and real estate agents have gleefully chanted on their reality shows, “if it looks good, it is good!” Vélez prefers to expose such misnomers.

Pedro Vélez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1971. He lives and works between New York City, the Midwest, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has participated in American and international solo and group exhibitions at numerous galleries, museums, and art fairs including the Whitney Biennial 2014 in New York and #DrunkDictators, an “On The Wall” installation at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago. Past shows include A Study in Midwestern Appropriation, curated by Michelle Grabner at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; Contemporary Passions: American, European, and Latin American Art from the Serapión and Belk Collection, Museo de Arte de Ponce, PR (2012); Eraser, curated by Rachel Furnari, at Magnan Metz Gallery in NYC (2011); The Day of the Corrupt at Western Exhibitions, Chicago (2009); Epilepsy and Pegatina and Adult Porn, at Plush Gallery in Dallas (2007); Godfuck at Galeria Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2006).

His work as an artist and writer have been discussed in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Artspace, Frieze, El Vocero Newspaper, and Artforum among many other publications. For 10 years Pedro Vélez maintained a regular column about the art scenes in San Juan and Chicago for Artnet Magazine and his writing has been published in Newcity, New Art Examiner and Arte al Día. He was also the controversial editor of the blog El Box Score in San Juan.

101 / EXHIBIT was founded in 2008 by Sloan Schaffer in Miami, FL. Named after its original location, 101 NE 40th St., the gallery actively represents an international group of prolific emerging and established contemporary artists. Initially built around artists who emphasize the human form and figurative concerns, the gallery program embraces unparalleled craft, counter trend experimentation, New Media, and deviations into abstraction, installation-forward, and object-based works to expand the greater initiative of the program.