Pedro Vélez: 3/1/11

The Beating of Keely Coles (Sweet Kacey)

(photographic banner, 1/1)

The Day of the Corrupt: Our fathers left US shit

“If you fucking think oppression in marginalized countries is fashionably exotic for your seedy Biennial just wait till you see the picture I have of Francesco Bonami, Keely Coles and Blagojevich mounting Roger Clemen’s splitter on top of a coral reef”

These famous last words I overheard coming out of the mouth of Jones District at the crowded dingy bar gringos call Marrero in dirty humid San Juan. I heard it right underneath the glossy poster of the semi nude voracious curvy blonde holding the sweaty cold canned beer like a gold medal. Later on that evening Paul Kemp made apologies for Jones slippage, he told me the soon- to- be snitch was drunk as hell and high on coca. I didn’t believe it. To me the coke argument was besides the point because Jones looks like every other pundit, he seems to always be staring at the horizon with no consolation prize on sight. To me Jones looks like the Nile Perch from Lake Victoria, a sort of helpless creep with the human face of Alfred Adler.

For his exhibition The Day of the Corrupt: Our Fathers left US shit at Western Exhibitions, Pedro Vélez will develop a narrative, in three chapters, that incorporates angry observations and a list of corrupted personalities. The narrative will take shape in a humongous wall collage, paintings, photographic banners and the brand new web piece, Remote Control Curators, which denounces the unethical practice of lazy curators curating by email. More here

Psychosomatic Epilepsy is a series of new paintings and photographs of women, made up to look like they have been beaten, in which the artist tries to depict the bodily effects caused by the emotional trauma of living in a U.S. colony-Puerto Rico.

Misremember is based on the odd use of the verb by baseball player, Roger Clemens when asked, during his deposition before Congress, about his longtime friend and teammate, Andy Pettitte, who claimed the pitcher told him about using Human Growth Hormone in 1999 or 2000: "I think he misremembers our conversation," said Clemens.

Included with the exhibition will be Glacier, a limited edition Xerox book, in collaboration with Gean Moreno, that had been lost by a corrupt art dealer since 2004.

Nixon/Regan/JFK

(colored pencil, acrylic, book pages, paper)

Godfuck Senator Larry Craig

(photographic banner) The models were students from my Art History class at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico)

Roger Clemen's Wife (Missremembers)
2000-09

(wood, ink, paper, acrylic, screws, pins, styrofoam)

detail

(Clemens, Rasputin, Okwik Enwezor, Otto Kerner, Shoeless Joe Jackson)

Cassious MacDonald and the Sun Times

Juliet of the Spirits or Julieta Got Paid

(collage on back of poster)

detail (Los Conquistadores)

Blagoje-Bitch

(graphite, paper, acrylic, old magazine page, sharpie)

Pay to Play

(acrylic, book pages, poster and photograph)

detail of Pay to Play-photo by Pedro Velez

Clamor : Rosa Your Son Will be Indicted by the FBI)

(ink and acrylic on poster for Allora & Calzadilla exhibition at The Moore Space in Miami, in collaboration with the Renaissance Society, Chicago)

Traitor's Libby Hush

acrylic and paper con canvas

view of entrance to The Day of the Corrupt

Beata Beast

(photograhic banner and acrylic, 1/1)

Bonami Got Paid

(acrylic and sharpie on primed and raw canvas)

Newsvendor

(boombox, paper, acrylic)

Adolfo Krans vs Kenneth Lay

(pencil on paper)

Condoleeza Rice-and all secretaries of the State

Moral Gang-bang

Brandt's Brand

(photographic banner)

At a secretive press conference held Friday, February 4th, in an undisclosed location, Kate Brandt publicly announced that she will attend the opening at the InterContinental. Several art world know-it-alls have suggested that this appearance is an attempt to mend her relationship with Chicago-based critic, Pedro Vélez.

Last March, Brandt curated an exhibition entitled Kate Brandt Pink. Following the lead of the notoriously autocratic Yves Klein, participating artists were forced to comply with the imperious diva’s pink palette. Kate Brandt Pink became Brandt’s new brand. Public appearances have been sparse but noteworthy since the curator’s debut, including a photo op at the Performance Art Showcase in which Brandt posed on a pedestal with her back to the star-struck audience waiting behind padded ropes. Pedro Vélez, who was personally invited to the event by Brandt, refused to pose next to her and called the performance a “pitiful publicity stunt” in a review of the Performance Art Showcase.

That Vélez has flustered yet another art world persona is hardly outlandish. In a Newcity Art review Jason Foumberg wrote, “Vélez has a history of upsetting people, über-collector Rosa de la Cruz shouted ‘You’ll never work in the U.S. again!’ after he appropriated her name for one of his artworks, a showcard for a fictional exhibition in which she was unwittingly listed as a participant.” As a multidisciplinary artist and critic, Vélez has been known to debase the power dynamics that art world ‘celebrities,’ like Brandt, rely upon when attempting to control culture through hierarchical displays of money and status.