Pedro Vélez

Fountain of Youth at Locust Projects (2003)

2011-12-07T12:27:00.001-08:00

Law Office and Pedro Vélez Protest the Exploitation of Ann Lee by dirty pimps Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno.

Fountain of Youth: The invitation to the exhibition

Ann Lee Lives!

C-print and ink.

Pedro Velez and Law Office

1/1 2003

We donated this work to Puerto Rican collector John T. Belk. The donation has a strict set of rules regarding its exhibition and management. It can never be resold.

The Controversy with Rosa de la Cruz

Rosa had us on the phone for about one hour. We were really nice to her and tried to explain the concept of the exhibition. By the end her monologue she started screaming in Spanglish, telling us that she was on her way to Paris to buy the whole Ann Lee Project from Pierre and that she would never visit our show. She also threatened we would never work again in the art world.

Adult Crib

Marta Traba mural

Fountain of Youth and Ann Lee Lives! in Breeder Editions

Miami Herald Review:

ENFANT TERRIBLE COLLECTIVE MAKES ART OUT OF OUR SCANDALOUS PAST
BY DAMARYS OCAÑa

Fri, Jan. 24, 2003

There are alternative art spaces, risk-taking curators and middle-finger artists -- and then there's Law Office, Chicago's role-hopping collaborative, which once commissioned an artist to streak naked through an art fair with the crew's name written across his butt cheeks.

Other subversive hits by Law Office, whose members -- artists Rob Davis, Vincent Dermody, Michael Langlois and Rebekah Levine -- conceptualize and mount shows that they and other artists star in: A retrospective of a barely known emerging artist; a take on corporate sponsorship that combined art, Wu Wear and buckets of beer; and the genre-blurring, crossover Sex Party, for which four invited artists built a porn set and produced their own films. The set was then the icky site for a party in which ''trashy attire'' was required.

At its best, Law Office manages to make its enfant terrible, pop-culture driven art into relevant commentary on the art world, its slick connection with commerce, and the role of artists, curators, museum directors and the audience. One of a growing number of young artist collectives springing up nationwide and in Canada, it seeks to turn expectation and art-world hierarchy upside down, or at least blow it up to level the playing field -- and have a really good time doing it. At the very least, it's entertaining.

By comparison with its earlier projects, Law Office's show at Locust Projects, Fountain of Youth, is much more tame. Odd, yes, but no one is swinging naked from the rafters. The show, a Law Office collaboration with Chicago artist/curator/critic Pedro Velez that also includes pieces by Steve Davis, Travis Lanning and Scott Wolniak, comprising a painting, sculptures, drawings, an installation and a video.

The closest the group came to controversy was including Miami collector Rosa de la Cruz's name in a stream-of-consciousness list of phrases like ''a dead pony'' on a poster in the show, which doubled as the show's invitation flyer. De La Cruz, according to Velez, was upset enough to call him and complain. Alas, one show visitor lamented, the conversation was not taped for posterity.

The theme for Fountain of Youth, named after the mythical spring that supposedly brought Ponce De Leon to Florida, is Miami itself. Don't expect extraordinary insight -- no artist has yet properly mined our historical wealth of weirdness and penchant for playing some role in seemingly every major scandal and national tragedy for its art potential.

Law Office, parachuting in, is no exception. But that's the point. Law Office's vision of Miami and, by a case of reluctant osmosis, South Florida, is -- purposely -- CNN's vision, and thus the world's: The breakaway banana republic and playground for the fabulous at the tip of the nation. Catapulting from the phrase ''fountain of youth,'' Law Office free-associated its way through Miami's image. Not terribly original, but fun nonetheless. Note the made-up flag of Miami above the door at Locust Projects.

The most obvious link to South Florida, aside from De La Cruz's name, is Anthrax Painting, a giant black-and-white painting of West Palm Beach's American Media building, where the first post-Sept. 11 case of anthrax poisoning was reported. In the painting, which looks like a postcard from a bygone era, the building is as luridly pristine and tranquil as a hospital, belying its history.

Pedro Velez's Marta Traba VF, a wall drawing/installation, is perhaps an oblique way of referencing Miami's history as a Latin American art hub. A framed, melancholy newspaper picture of Traba, an Argentine art critic, social activist and novelist of the '60s and '70s whose writings put Latin American art on an international stage, commands attention at the center of a wall. Reaching out from the picture's borders, a wall drawing of cryptic text reminiscent of Van Halen font completes the piece's feel of a devoted teenager's private shrine.

Marta Traba VF is juxtaposed with Ann Lee Picture, a photograph of a young woman tacked to an adjacent wall, that makes reference to Art Basel, the newest chapter in Miami's art history. The photograph is a spoof, covered as it is with a sardonic scrawled message to French artists Pierre Huyghe and Phillippe Parreno, the duo who bought the rights to a Japanese anime character, named her AnnLee and used her as the focal point of a series of works by themselves and other artists, then retired her with a fireworks display during Basel. ''Phillippe, Pierre: You cannot kill Ann Lee!'' reads the statement against the tyranny of French artists. ``She is alive and well in Puerto Rico. Go fuck yourselves. L.O. & P.V.''

A video that combines footage of Friday the 13th horror character Jason jumping through a window and attacking a woman with audio of a drunken redneck version of ''Amazing Grace'' has a distinctly trailer-trash vibe. Most engaging in the show is perhaps Adult Crib, a giant, crudely constructed wooden cube with a ramp, the participatory part of the show. Visitors can climb into the work and indulge in a feast of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (probably a reference to the good-time booty-bass fad song ''Peanut Butter and Jelly Time,'' and to the role of art as entertainment). Outfitted with mustard shag carpet and other low-grade accoutrements, Adult Crib is the glib-ironic heart of the exhibition.

Jason Foumberg on Pedro Vélez

2011-12-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

By Jason Foumberg
New City
January 28, 2009

Pedro Velez fashions himself as an art world muckraker. He seems to enjoy bullying the in-crowd, stripping the tenuous links between business and art, pulling the sheets off the back-scratching orgy and generally stirring the shit till it stinks. But “I’m trying to be nicer,” he says with a smirk. After spending the past five years in his native Puerto Rico on an extended “vacation,” Velez is back in Chicago, and he marks his return with a show at Western Exhibitions.

Velez has a history of upsetting people. “You’ll never work in the U.S. again!” shouted über-collector Rosa de la Cruz at Velez 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. Velez’s fake exhibition announcements are one of his more potent forms of critique, and they seem to instigate the most dramatic responses. He’s been making them for years, in both Chicago and Puerto Rico. The cards and fliers resemble typical gallery press for group exhibitions, and Velez “curates” an imaginary cast, which has included art world superstars Maurizio Cattelan, former Art Institute curator Okwui Enwezor, Eva Hesse, Jan Vermeer, and often includes topical news items, such as Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy whose mother drowned bringing him to the U.S. in 1999, and the endangered coral reef.
Velez relates the story of Rosa de la Cruz’s upset with a bit of pride, for her outburst reveals a lot about the international art community. Certain cities hold prominence in the social history of art. Paris in the nineteenth-century gave way to New York City as the twentieth-century’s cultural capital. In the last thirty years, the number of biennials in far-flung corners of the Earth, from Gwangju to São Paulo to Istanbul, has grown steadily, giving the jet-set curatorial class a sense of purpose. Unfortunately, you’ll often see the same artist roster no matter the region. It’s a story of increased global wealth, where biennial organizers can afford the “best” artists, and, as some see it, is an iteration of the colonize-and-conquer mentality.

The biennial franchise opened shop in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004. Being just a hop from Miami, where the art crowd convenes every December for its massive art fairs, the island is conveniently exotic. Its unique Latin flavors, sunny beaches, favor-trading politicians and lax regulations on entrepreneurship make it easy to forget that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory—its residents being American citizens. Surely Rosa de la Cruz forgot this when she threatened to excommunicate Velez from U.S. soil.

For being a self-made gatekeeper, de la Cruz wasn’t very knowledgeable about her terrain. Nor were the curators, says Velez, who swept in to take stock of the culture, and export it. Velez believes the art community, including curators, collectors and dealers, has a responsibility to respect its locale. But Puerto Rico quickly became an over-harvested field whose roots have been pulled, and the changing winds of taste blew away all that remained. “Puerto Rico’s art scene dried up,” says Velez. Likewise, in Chicago, he’s complained about curators who don’t bother to take stock of local culture.

As a working critic, curator and artist, it’s often difficult to parse out Velez’s various practices, although the critical edge is ever-present. Is the fake exhibition announcement his art or his curatorial work, or is it an artful form of critique? The term “remote control curators” appears in both his critical writings and his art, referring to exhibition organizers who curate via email in territorialized countries, not bothering to see either the art or the site in person. Somewhat similarly, Velez’s fictional exhibition announcements, which he hands out at art gatherings or shows in the gallery, pluck famous figures from the news feed, and the exhibition venue is never listed (leading to some frustration if you don’t get the hoax). Critic Michelle Grabner interpreted this as Velez idealistically dreaming the perfect exhibition, recalling André Malraux’s 1950 book “Museum Without Walls,” wherein a show is conceptualized using only reproductions of famous artworks.

But Velez is not sitting around waiting for some postmodern fantasy wish fulfillment; his practice focuses on uncomfortable social situations and the problem of inflated cultural capital. Many of the posters in his current show feature images of girl-next-door type porn models sporting bruises and black eyes. These girls embody the spectacle of pillaging—Velez’s art is necessarily un-beautiful. The list of implicated public figures, what he calls the “unwilling performers,” this time includes Puerto Rican condo developer Arturo Madero, Roger Clemens, even Blago. Above it all, a designer store’s shopping bag hangs upside-down in a signal of distress.

Velez is working in the tradition of the artist-as-watchdog, much like artist Hans Haacke’s 1971 exposé on underhanded Manhattan real estate sales, which was framed as an art piece. Velez says that Illinois’ current political troubles would barely make waves in Puerto Rico. Its art scene reflects widespread ill maneuverings, and while a true regulation of any country’s art dealings, from its auctions to VIP lists, would surely topple it, for Velez, to be critical is a performance itself.

The Powhida Review

2011-12-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

"The Powhida Review"
2010
Photographic vinyl banner
5' x 4'
1/1 (not an edition)

Carter-Wynne Collection, Dallas

Letter to the Editor; Re: The Bad Review

2011-08-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

Letter to the Editor; Re: The Bad Review

Large installation piece that consists of three photographic banners- collaged and painted on its surfaces- and one wall/ceiling mural made in graphite and yellow acrylic. The work is my critical review of Allora & Calzadilla and and how the US Pavilion in Venice was curated by corporate lobbyist. The cryptic text and graffiti also refers to the erasures and manipulations enacted in political rhetoric and corporate media. Especially that of the NY art press.

"Letter to the Editor; Re: The Bad Review" was made specifically for "Eraser," an exhibition curated by Rachel Furnari for Magnan Metz Gallery in May 2011.

"Letter to the Editor; Re: The Bad Review" at Magnan Metz Gallery

(photo by the web site Dear Chelsea)

The hand- painted text of the green banner in the middle reads: Ben's For Hire; Public's Pubes; Unemployed Gringos; Fail Bush; Benneton; Heads of Stato; Plame Assfair Affair.

This flyer is located right in the center of the green banner, barely visible from plain view.

(Curated by De La Cruz)

(Edit-or or Idiot)

(Lobbyists curated Venice. Curated review by Pedro Velez)

(Pubs & Rum)

(Edit)

(Read)

Pedro Velez's The Day of the Corrupt: Our fathers left US shit at Western Exhibitions (2009)

2011-03-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

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

"Hyperbole" by Kate Brandt and Pedro Velez, curated by Danielle Rosen at Galerie M. InterContinental Hotel, Milwaukee

2011-03-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

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.

bodyguard and Lindsay Lohan's Fidel Castro

Lindsey Lohan's Fidel Castro

(2007 - altered with Kate Brandt's pink color in 2011)

bar decorated with some of my art reviews (posters)

Drunk Dictators like Scott Walker...

(This poster was censored by the hotel, but they were really nice about it)

Brandt Paints Milwaukee in Violent Pink

Reps and Dems go on a Date

painting and flyers that read " Rum, Ruby, Stato, Robespierre, Zinn, Zizek"

Scott Walker

(2008-altered in 2011 with Brandt's pink color)

Arturo Madero Corrupt Developer

(the painting in 2008)

Kate Brandt paints a portrait of INOVA's curator on the red carpet

Wisconsin Fire

styrofoam, wood and acrylic

(2002-altered in 2011 with Brandt's pink color)

Vélez finally meets Kate Brandt during the opening

(detail on photographic banner: styrofoam, screw and acrylic)

Uni Las Vas Rasfur Falut:David Robbins and The MacLaughlin Group, curated by Pedro Vélez (2005)

Kate Brandt

curator Danielle Rosen with works by Kate Brandt

The Aging Quail: Pedro Velez and Gean Moreno at Galeria Comercial (2004)

2011-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

African American- Indian Mushroom Cloud

Girlfriend Glare (Monica)

Girlfriend Glare (not Monica but close)

Glacier

collaborative Xerox book

I'll Meet You Behind Home Plate ( Pedro Velez and Matt Hanner)

2009-09-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Epilepsy, Pegatina and Adult Porn at Plush Gallery, Dallas and on the Web (reviews in Art Lies and Rotund)

2009-01-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

limited edition invitation to the exhibition

Review by Kevin Bouchard for Art Lies

Seizure is the central theme of Pedro Vélez’ exhibition at Plush Gallery: epileptic seizures, seizures of property—both literal and conceptual—and the seizure of sex and empowerment from others. On the gallery’s website, Vélez offers a detailed account of his personal experience with seizure (the ailment), musings and communications, additional works and an interview with a porn star. This wide range of expression fits together very well, making the virtual exhibition feel more comprehensive than the work display in the physical gallery.

Vélez’ works on display are clearly based on reproductions. They are collisions, like the synaptic chaos that characterizes the neuropathology of a seizure. Central images—often pages torn from a book or magazine and then photographed—serve as the ground upon which the artist applies grandiose drawings of words—distorted graffiti cut out and stuck onto appropriated images. This pegatina may be thought of as the vandal’s form of collage.

Indeed, piracy and actual pirates recur in an ongoing storyline filled with old engravings and familiar tales. In one piece, we see an engraving of two ships blasting cannons at each other in close concert—broadside mayhem. Stuck onto each image are words that double as titles: Spew, Happiest People, SFRAPuit. Vélez’ word play is often inscrutable, but his repeated depiction of coercion is not.

Calamity at sea is also evident in Exon, misspelling deliberate, which portrays not an oil spill but a photograph of a cruise ship engulfed in flames. In Gut, a ship miraculously stumbles upon survivors of a sunken vessel with text reading “Davy Jones Locker” stuck onto it. All this intrigue and swashbuckling is entertaining; what it means for the artist, however, is unclear, and given his primary role as provocateur, one is cautious about assigning specific symbolic meaning to these works.

The most provocative images are Vélez’ staged photographs of young women made up to look like they have been beaten. In Lamb, a professional model looks directly into the camera with a black eye. The color photograph is composed with the care a fashion photographer would employ, portraying brutal sexuality as fashion. Thirty-two years ago, the Rolling Stones’ promotional materials for the album Black & Blue managed the same high-tone ugliness. Theirs, however, was an attempt to unsettle an audience that had been stoned a little too long, while Vélez’ images of abused igénues play to the virgin/whore dichotomy even though their titles imply Old Testament sacrifice.

The most intellectually engaging piece is debts, a collage that includes a photo of naval cadets, a nun teaching a class of adolescent girls and a Madonna. In this case, the title steers the content of the piece to contemplation of the burden of received wisdom. The primacy of institutions weighs heavy, but the open, willing faces of the boys and girls do not reveal any sense of burden. The gender segregation is in keeping with the alienation between men and women in Vélez’ other work. One is left to wonder what form debt will take and what price will be demanded.

The web component of the exhibition contains an interview with a porn starlet that is noteworthy in its banality. This could be an interview with any young entrepreneur struggling to meet market demands and cope with the daily trials of work, which are, in this case, overcome by a lot of vodka. If this interview and related images are hip, that is a shame because they come across as puerile, projecting standard-issue adolescent male bravado and sexual insecurity. But to his credit, Vélez has produced a body of work that cannot be readily categorized as purely polemical. It has both comic- book appeal and skin-trade creepiness. It shoves the chaos of competing impulses in our face with no hint of the possibility of reconciliation.

Review by Joel Weinstein in Rotund

From where we’re sitting, Myspace appears to be a cheesy cyber parlor of idle chatter where the point is to accumulate “friends,” announce a variety of vainglorious aspects of your person such as astrological sign, whether or not you’re dating, your fave bands, grooming habits, drugs of choice, how you stand vis-à-vis tattoos, and so forth, and express something of your innermost being by way of stuttering animated graphics that run the gamut from hard-core to kissy-face. There are a slew of photographic mementos recording extreme, well-dressed arriving, departing, and standing around. Myspace also facilitates instant messaging and commenting, so that the air around any given page thrums with whatever twenty-first century variations of “Dude!” prevail among the pretty vacant, and one sees a lot of put-on luridness that tries very, very hard. There are, we admit, some very cool concert and exhibition posters, and we’re convinced that if you’re in a band Myspace probably beats total obscurity.

Judging by what we’ve seen, Myspace belongs perfectly to our increasingly dark ages, in which preening, aggressively knotheaded weblog punditry is ascendant and expressions like “Bite me” stand in for reasoned discourse.

But herein lies the rub. This is a view of Myspace that you get as you move a little outward from San Juan artist Pedro Vélez’s Myspace pages. If there is one thing we’ve learned in our brief, fraught acquaintanceship with the magmatic Vélez, it’s that he makes a lot of things up. As we’ve pointed out before, his exhibitions include flyers for fake art shows, performances, concerts, and miscellaneous other supposed events and entities, and the tableaux on his posters and banners depict a kind of pained adolescent demimonde to which Vélez, at the age of thirty-four, is not likely to belong no matter how arrested his development. Ditto, his involvement with mainstream artists like Jorge Zeno, a painter who has allowed Vélez to “intervene” on some of his canvases by attaching pieces of paper in the form of almost illegible language, leaves all of us scratching our heads and wondering who is getting what from whom. And why.

So what is it with the artist’s Myspace pages, called “Hell in LAMB UC”? Is he squirrelier than he looks, happily indulging a skanky fashion du jour? Is he in it for the virtual nookie? Is he putting us on once again? Vélez describes his online exertions as a proposal for an exhibition, but after a more or less painstaking examination of the site—a whole lot less than more, to tell the truth—we’re convinced “Hell in LAMB UC” is the exhibition he’s always wanted.

Vélez’s description is, as usual, rife with baloney, especially the earnest yammering about Hunter S. Thompson and William Kennedy, although who knows, he could be serious about this. But more to the point is the artist’s ready willingness to lie:

Hell in LAMB UC is a faux over faux multimedia piece housed in the popular web host of My Space.com that investigates the fate of characters, joints and publications found in Hunter S. Thompson lost novel THE RUM DIARY . . .

Just like Thompson managed to capture the idiosyncrasies and atmosphere of the hot hub in the Caribbean, Pedro Velez has developed . . . an intricate and non-linear narrative lead by four main characters: Hell in LAMB UC, Ann Lee, Huntergodfs and Staged Metal Party. The four characters introduce the viewer to a web of connections, images, false characters, text and profiles that rips thru the My Space sphere like a manic Gonzo reporter burned with the hot rums of Puerto Rico.

“The hot rums of Puerto Rico!” Well. The prose may be purple and the idea overwrought, but “Hell in LAMB UC” is stranger than it looks. For starters, not everything is fiction. Vélez did indeed meet and start dating the woman in the photograph below, during a party at the house pictured. Perhaps the dewy nectars of mutual attraction got uncorked by that very shutter’s click.

But by and large, the pages of his so-called “friends” have that distinctively opaque, quasi-sordid Vélez look, with the notable difference that the author is beginning to show something less than complete indifference to graphic niceties. Staged Metal Party’s “adult REPUBLICANS in jFK” suggests a mouthful, all of it rude, while saying nothing you can put your finger on. It’s as exasperatingly voyeuristic as ever, but considerably more readable than usual, attaining a kind LetraSet piss elegance.
One of Hell in LAMB UC’s own postings is downright elementary Photoshoppy. Good going, Pedro! You have to hand it to Vélez. Even if by happy accident, his suggestive phraseology, compacted and splintered almost beyond verbalization, touches on any number of actual undercurrents of resentment seething at different levels of Puerto Rican society, from sullen youths, to alienated bohemians and would-be bohemians, even into the pained civic consciousness of this conflicted neverland.

What we like about “Hell in LAMB UC” is the way its blog entries and the comments of its “friends” create a convincing, if unwholesome, world of confessional cheap talk, reflexive argumentativeness, and flirting gone wrong.

Hunter S. Thompson

6/23/2006 8:24 PM

I'm completely confused. For a while it seemed that you wanted literature to be like heavy metal. Heavy metal isn't usually all that smart, but it's passionate, aggressive, sincere, honest, and lacks irony. I could more or less get with that. It seemed right for our post-ironic post 9/11 times. But now you want art to be more like sports? Have you lost your mind?! Sports are all obsessed with competition, corporate sponsorship, advertising, consumerism, and steroid abuse. And you are quoting Nike in your directive to just [fucking] do it? Brother, you have really gone astray.

Ann Lee Lives!

6/21/2006 7:30 PM

It was very lame, easy and childish of you to give me the 1am, Burger King drive-tru, five minute tops, “I'm so busy and gotta move on,” easy break up and dissappear on the fuckin phone.

I would have prefered a letter with you creative use of words, something tangible, and at least, respectful to me, I think I deserved that . . .

As you wend your way through the nerve system of Vélez’s semi-fiction, clicking on the friends of friends and their friends, you find an exponentially bigger pool of actual strangers, whose narratives, though not Vélez’s, are no more or less reliable than his. Could anything as deeply weird as the flag-waving Republican Freelancer be made up?

Vélez seems to have found, at relatively little expense and bother, a way to have the full- blown exhibition that the art world is always denying him—or so he likes to complain—a show in which he can be as cantankerous, opaque, foul, unhappy, and inventive as he wishes, both enjoying the fruits of an anonymous, profoundly untrustworthy medium while giving it the finger for its superficiality and basic dishonesty. It’s vintage Vélez, only more so. See for yourself at

http://myspace.com/hellinlambuc

Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diary channeled by Pedro Vélez

2008-11-19T07:49:00.001-08:00

Where is Chenault!? (from Hell in LAMB UC : Hunter Thompson's The Rum Diary, channeled by Pedro Vélez).

Web-based piece based on Hunter Thompson's The Rum Diary. Published in 2006.

press here to follow the narrative : Hell in LAMB UC

Hell in LAMB UC is a “faux over faux” multimedia piece housed in the
popular web host of My Space.com that investigates the fate of characters,
joints and publications found in Hunter S. Thompson lost novel THE RUM
DIARY.

Set in a thriving yet decadent colony of the U.S. in the late 50’s, the
book has been source of countless myths and speculation surrounding
fictional and actual places and personalities.

These confusing tales not only involve Thompson passing as weary reporter
Paul Kemp or the willing abduction and rape of his desired Chenault, but
Pulitzer Prize winner William J. Dorvillier channeling a good friend of the
author and editor of a bowling publication El Sportivo, William Kennedy.

Neither Kennedy nor Thompson lived more than two years in the island of
Puerto Rico.

Just like Thompson managed to capture the idiosyncrasies and atmosphere of
the hot hub in the Caribbean, Pedro Velez has developed, in a two month
self - imposed sabbatical, an intricate and non-linear narrative lead by
four main characters: Hell in LAMB UC, Ann Lee, Huntergodfs and
Staged Metal Party.

The four characters introduce the viewer to a web of connections, images,
false characters, text and profiles that rips thru the My Space sphere like
a manic Gonzo reporter burned with the hot rums of Puerto Rico.

Pedro Vélez :The Day of the Corrupt (performance/installation at El Cha, Puerto Rico)

2008-07-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Day of the Corrupt

Wall collage & performance

"The Day of the Corrupt" took place on September 12 at El CHA Performing Arts Center in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. El CHA was a punk hub located in the outskirts of San Juan. In a period of five hours I covered, damaged and painted over graffiti work (originally done by Juni Figueroa as well as others) decorating the walls of El CHA. Over those erasures I added (with acrylic paint and collages ) the names of corrupt personalities, art dealers, a few fake personalities, and politicians:

Jorge de Castro Font, Miyuca, Rovira Crakers, Berezdivin Trienal, Adlín Rios, Hilda Torros, Otto, Larry Craig, Arturo Madero, Soutto, Ratt, Torrente, Senators, Milosevich, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Malaso among others.

At the end of the exhibit a bunch of my collages (valued at $400 ) were sold at 20 bucks each and all the money was donated to EL CHA. Sadly, a few days later El CHA was shut down. The exhibition also included a soundtrack by José "Popu" Roman.

*CHA stands for : Center for the Horrible Arts

video of The Day of the Corrupt on MSA

Cesar Reyes
Ratt (Homage to Robin Crosby, guitar player and founder of Glam Metal band Ratt, who died of AIDS forgotten by his band.
Hilda Torros of Universidad del Sagrado Corazón.

detail (Torrente)
Staged wall drawing with red boombox (Miyuca La Muda and her cohorts)
Berezdivin and vomit (over a graffiti by Radamés Juni Figueroa)
detail (Rovira Crakers)
Miyuca
detail of RATT mural
detail of Miyuca La Muda and Her Cohorts
Vélez at work

James Baker

drawing on top of menu/rules board of El CHA

detail Arturo Madero

detail (Otto Reyes, Miyuca, Adlín Ríos Rigau)

Beata Bratriz Mixta(ink and acrylic on a San Juan Trienal poster)

Beer Young and the Catholic University

the Corrupted

Cuba's

Senators

Krane

Maggie's Hell in LAMB UC

Political Shipwreck

***********************************************************************************************

Related news for corrupted Senator Jorge de Castro Font and his ties to collector Alberto de la Cruz:

From Caribbean Bussiness
Who’s who in De Castro Font case
By CB Online Staff

Rumors began circulating late Friday and early Saturday as to the identities of the 12 persons who alleged they were victims of extortion by former Senate Majority leader Jorge De Castro Font, who was charged earlier this week in federal court with 32 counts of alleged fraud and extortion, among other charges.

One of the 12, Atty. Guillermo Zuñiga already declared himself guilty of paying De Castro Font $5,000 a month for a total of $120,000 from July 2006 to July 2008 on behalf of several clients. He maintained when declaring himself guilty that when he attempted to stop the payments he was threatened.

Other well-known businesspeople who allegedly were paying off the senator in return for favors include American Parking owners Miguel and Rolando Cabral who allegedly paid De Castro Font $40,000 over an 18-month period and hosted him in their native Dominican Republic, flying him there on their private plane.

Also allegedly named in the indictment as “Person No. 1” is Alberto de la Cruz who, according to the accusation, allegedly paid some $165,000 to the senator through his advertising agency Sajo & García to allegedly keep a certain bill from not being passed. De la Cruz, distributor of Coca Cola and Medalla beer among other products, appeared to have been successful and the bill was never passed.

Others on the list include developer Joel Katz who allegedly paid the senator $132,000 over a five-year period regarding legislation for his Costa Sirena development in Loiza and Carlos Declet, owner of Santurce Gas, who allegedly indicated he paid some $10,000 to kill a specific House bill. He maintains in the indictment papers that he was asked for $35,000.

Atty. Alfredo Escalera, who represents several associations,allegedly kicked in $4,500 for a meeting with De Castro Font to talk about legislation affecting his clients although he had allegedly been asked to pay $10,000 for the meeting.

El Jibarito owner Jorge Mayendía allegedly paid the senator $5,000 a month from 1996 to May 2008 at which time he needed, according to the indictment, to have the text of a bill modified to sell a water bottling company he owned to non-local investors.

ACODESE’s Betsy Barbosa, owner of an insurance company for the past eight years, allegedly paid De Castro Font $83,300 through Sajo & García and the company of also-accused conspirator Alberto Goachet, head of the press office for former Gov. Pedro Rosselló. Also alleged to be paying monies, said to be around $30,000 to De Castro Font’s agencies, was Ramón Macrón, vice president of a company called Urban Designs.

Dakis Joannou and the Yacth that Conquers

2008-06-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Dakis Joannou and the Yacht that Conquers, curated by Pedro Velez

poster and photographic banner triptych

Cute Girls, Heavy Metal, Sports and Hope

2008-06-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

Unfinished Jewish Sculptureshaped billboard found at Spertus Museum. Alterations made in styrofoam and acrylic

Installation view: The Program and Pedro Vélez's Cute Girls

Unfinished Socially Conscious Sculpture

shaped cardboard and colored push pins on Laundromat sign

installation view : on the left Wall of Fake Shows, curated by Pedro Velez

"The flyers were free for the take.

Nina Luis vs Judy Ledgerwood curated by Pedro Velez

Site - specific parallel exhibition at TBA headquarters in which I decided to have underrepresented abstract painter from Puerto Rico Nina Luis compete against a painting by Judy Ledgerwood from the TBA collection. It took Nina Luis two full days to make her painting on site.

Judy's painting...

red swirls by Nina Luis

Sports and Hope curated by Pedro Velez (secret piece available only to employees of TBA) Decoration and "curation" of TBA's fridge. Includes an e-mail from friend Kasarian Dane detailing the news that he and his wife are expecting a child, and a newspaper clipping celebrating the Chicago Bears miraculous inclusion playoffs.

Many of the unwilling collaborators included on my fake shows and invitation to the exhibition are present on this fridge--including Alix Lambert and Jasmine Bleeth.

Wall Collage over Art Chicago, curated by Pedro Velezgraphite, white paint and ink variations over three walls and the Art Chicago/San Francisco logotypes.

Heavy Metal Mix Tapes, curated by Pedro Velezclose to 300 mix tapes, selected from an open call to submit a mix to the exhibition, were distributed free of charge to visitors.
flyer for Heavy Metal Mix Tape (edition of 3)
"Only Death is Real," mix tape by Alex Drake
Pedro Velez's Cute Girls

Monica Rizzo in Old San Juan by Carlos Ruiz, curated by Pedro Velez

Pamela Jo Buchwald in NYC by Maria Alos, curated by Pedro Velez
Emmi Mathis in a bathtub full of bubbles by Melissa Shubeck, curated by Pedro Velez

Kristen "Teen Beat" Van Deventer by Lisa Williamsom, curated by Pedro Velez
ex-girlfriend Jenn Ramsey in North Carolina, curated by Pedro Velez
Jennifer Schmidt in Boston by Stefano Pasquini, curated by Pedro Velez
Edra Soto in Chicago by Mara Ayala, curated by Pedro Velez
Sara Hicks at the beach by Yuki Kokubo, curated by Pedro Velez

Keri Butler's neck by Rebekah Levine, curated by Pedro Velez

The Program is Briezy, curated by Pedro VelezFor this exhibition the original version of The Program (2001), was re-edited by Rebekah Ruthkoff under the title of Briezy. Artist included in Rutkoff's version: Forcefield, Vicente Razo, Gayil Nails, Ximena Cuevas

The Program (2001)

interview about the fake shows by Gean Moreno in Arte al Día (2003)

exhibition essay by Shane Selzer

2008-06-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Apocalypse Now, fake postcard/ '99 at Hermetic Gallery, Milwaukee

2008-06-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

postcard and collaged construction paper, acrylic, screw and styrofoam

invitation (after Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones)

Unfinished Yellow Sculpture

styrofoam, acrylic, wood, masonite

"Postcard 1999/Apocalypse Now"

1999 /limited edition of 3,000 distributed freely in 1999

with the support of John T. Belk

Frieze review by Michele Grabner

If material things seem to have taken on an almost religious significance in our consumer economy, art has remained a successfully secular and objective enterprise, continuing to offer itself up as a critical, systematic activity that traffics in cultural inquiry. Superstition, magic, or priestcraft are rarely considered, despite the fact that many artists engage in a kind of conjuring and divining of material.

Jessica Hutchins and Pedro Velez are by no means into consulting oracles or interceding with the gods, but their sculptural objects suggest a curiosity in something unnatural and spirited. Hutchins’ old T-shirt, collaged with stars cut from the newspaper, and Velez’ construction paper sandwiched together with oozing orange acrylic paint could be legitimately redeemed in a contemporary art context as a poor-man’s Jessica Stockholder or a clumsy Tony Feher. But more compelling and unusual is Hutchins and Velez’ naive attempt to attach a quasi-sacred belief system to their ephemera in order to justify and redeem their own overarching seduction by materiality and worldly success. Their simple sculptural forms pry open the secularised conceptual framework of art production in the hope of glimpsing an epistemological precept greater than the intellectual mandates of art schools and the privilege of the market place.

This search for divinity in material things starts with their approach to making art which reveals little formal etiquette or proclivity to balance or harmony. Yet the objects’ awkwardness refuses to be sympathetic to discord or tolerant of ambiguity. Every piece in the show was mysteriously iconic, even slightly folksy, but ultimately a refreshing shift from the closed methodical systems characteristic of much contemporary art.

Hutchins combines papier mâché, thin gauge wire, staples, sheets of ruled paper, and colouring book pages to make a large, sloppy floor mat. Like a surface peeled from Kurt Schwitter’s Merzbau, Untitled (2000) is a buckling flat mass too cumbersome for the gallery space. It imposes its crudeness on the other equally crude sculptures in the space and the loops of wire protruding from its surface literally trip visitors up. Lacking the elegance of a flying carpet or the grounding of a prayer mat, Hutchins’ floor piece locates itself somewhere between a religious accoutrement and a disposable lining for a rodent cage, between the sacred and the blasphemous, between art and junk.

Butterfly (2000) is another of Hutchins’ floor sculptures that is so shoddily made that belief in the uncanny is the only way one can legitimise its coming into being. Again, as a rudimentary form - an open cube - it can’t escape its art precursors, but its unskilled construction animates it with a possessed presence. A dangling paper butterfly neither decorated it nor lent its meaning a rational narrative.

Velez’ Postcard (2000) hits a metaphysical mark without over dependence on animated material. Commercially printed, these blue and yellow postcards, casually stuck to the gallery wall, sport a smartly designed list of contemporary artists such as Daniel Buren, Gaylen Gerber, Julian Schnabel, Ceal Floyer, and Kay Rosen. A stack of the same cards next to the gallery’s sign-in book was inscribed with the words ‘Curated by Pedro Velez’. This fictional exhibition announcement is as much wish fulfilment as it is a piece of critical commentary in which Velez takes a swipe at an inadequate local art apparatus while acknowledging his admiration for certain artists. Perhaps if he holds the card close to his heart and makes a wish the show will come true. Maybe even in the mid-West. All it takes is a little faith.

First published in
Issue 55, November-December 2000

Weiner Book of Blah

2008-06-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Weiner Book of Blah

Altered Book Pages for The Library Project

Temporary Services

Drawings on top of book pages of a Lawrence Weiner catalog donde with an eraser and ink. All books and publications were infiltrated to the Chicago Public Library collection.

Oracle Betances: A novel by Pedro Velez

2008-06-17T18:09:00.001-07:00

Oracle Betances is a series of 4 banners / full page ads specifically designed for Teresa López' publication, Orificio('07)

Oracle Betances, novel by Pedro Vélez

photographic banner 6'x5'

Lawyers Association Magazine. Edition: Art and Law, 2008.

"Oracle Betances" was published as a full page fake ad in the Lawyers Association Magazine of Puerto Rico. Theme : Art and Law, curated by Chloé Georas, 2008.

Cu Chi Tunnels, curated by Pedro Vélezphotographic banner ('07)

Arturo y Zoila, curated by Pedro Vélez

San Gerónimo!, curated by Pedro Vélez full page ad in Orificio

Hell in Lamb UC / Poster Project for NADA Art Fair '05

2008-06-16T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hell in LAMB UC, special project for NADA Art Fair, 2005. Limited edition poster series of 1,000

(left) Uni Las Vas Rasfur Falut (David Robbins and The Maclaughlin Group), photographic banner; (right) UC RASF, acrylic on canvas. At Galeria Comercial booth.

Posters at Cultural Contamination exhibition curated by Gean Moreno at the Centro Cultural Español in Miami, '07. Work on top of wall of posters by Diego Sighn.

A Glorious Ending 2003 Public Art Project

2008-06-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

A Glorious Ending, curated by Pedro Velez

limited edition poster ditych for the public Art Project Post

'03. Also distributed at Artpoint, Miami.

PEDRO VELEZ
April 2003

Velez's A Glorious Ending will be exhibited in various northwest neighborhoods (Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, and River West) beginning April 15, 2003. Created as a two-part poster edition, A Glorious Ending incorporates both optimism and fatalism into a wish list of chance occurences between an unlikely cast of characters. Velez's POST edition embraces non-sensical thoughts, romantic ideals, art discourse, pseudo-confrontations, comradery, political concerns and the call of the wild.

Web Site de POST

Posters distribuidos gratuitamente en feria Artpoint con el auspicio del Soap Factory en Minneapolis.

Misremember, poster for Event Horizon, Boston

2008-05-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

Event Horizon web site

Misremember by Pedro Vélez in collaboration with Gamaliel Rodríguez

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.

Using this quote as source material the piece makes connections between governmental corruption, loyalty, morality, sports and journalism.

The Corrupt

2008-03-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Corrupt (Milosevich, Cramen Correa, Osv, Ratt, Rosello)

Balloons and Ink

Intervention/Performance/Collage at the Condado Lagoon

as part of an exhibition by La Mobil Projects

2007

The Corrupt

Ratt and Robin Crosby

ballons and rainbow

exhibition view

Camen Correa

Benetton GAP collages

2008-03-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Benetton and the Africa - India Mushroom Cloud Continent

02-04

view at Galeria Comercial 03

Suite Girl A&Efound poster, postcards, ink, acrylic and paper

Ben's For Hire instalation at Galeria Comercial '05

GAP
cotton, nylon, yarn, acrylic and GAP tag'01

Puertorican - Jewish and Lights Remix

'04

Whitney Visit Berezdivin Wall Collage

the opposite wall is that of Espacio 1414-Berezdivin Collection

Sad GAPcotton, nylon, acrylic'02

Pedro Vélez Fake Shows (invitations, posters , offset and banners) 1999-on going

2008-01-29T08:26:00.001-08:00

Uni Las Vas Rasfur Falut: David Robbins and The Maclaughlin Group, curated by Pedro Velez in '05Photographic banner, 2/2at NADA Art Fair 05

Hell in LAMB UC Elections, curated by Pedro Velez in '04
at Ingalls Associates Gallery, Miami

review in Art US

Tropical Setting for all the Exotic Artists,curated by Pedro Velez

1/1 offset poster

'05

Wall of Fake Shows at TBA Exhibition Space, Chicago

Be Aggressive: Ralph Nader, Mike Kelley, Dune. Curated by Pedro Velezflyer and posters distributed at exhibition: The Suburban Political Poster Project
Lothringer Dreizehn of the City of Munich and Max Fish, NYC. 2003

installation view

article in Collezioni Italy

Sports, Hope and Loss (Barry Bonds), curated by Pedro Velezdistributed at Yerba Buena Arts Center and published at the Poor Pony #113 in an event by Shane Selzer.

*The name of Julia Child included in invitation for exhibition.

Hirsch Farm Projects on Easter Island, curated by Pedro Velezcolored flyers, edition of a 1,000'02

cryptic text on invitation for exhibition The Aging Quail at Galeria Comercial

Brian Wilson's Synchronized Swimming, curated by Pedro Velezpostcards and flyers, '02

No Metaphorspostcard

front side of The Dams Piedras Negras, curated by Pedro Vélezpostcard

back side of postcard: The Dams Piedras Negras,curated by Pedro Vélez
Adults in PJ BwleranMy Space banner (from Hell in Lamb UC on line exhibition series and viral campaigns)

Godfucks Miami onto Others
My Space banner

Godfucks Miami onto Others in ChicagoMy Space banner

The Aging Quailsflyer (the ex governor)

Smoke s in its Rethoric' s
My Space banner

Paul Kemp and Hunter Thompson(The Rum Diaries)My Space banner

Studentspostcard, 2002

Adult Republicans in JFKMy Space banner

KDUTRAphotographic flyer

Drunk Dictators: Milosevic (Wisconsin Death Trip) at LMCC, NYC; Galeria Comercial, PR

2008-01-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

"Milosevic" (2005)

Wall and floor collage first exhibited at Galeria Comercial in Puerto Rico and later at Manic and Wasted, curated by Randall Garret at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in NYC. The materials include: a tilted wall, drawings, ink, paper, posters, Benetton banner, colored pins, acrylic, nylon, photographs, a Wisconsin T-shirt, private e-mail conversations and cryptic text drawn on the floor and the wall. With this work I tried to make connections between Fidel Castro, Vladimir Milosevich and the book Wisconsin Death Trip. "Milosevic" is now in the collection of Carlos López in Puerto Rico .

The Bribe at Waiting Room Gallery Minneapolis 2001

2008-01-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

"The Bribe" was a piece about corruption and confict of interest in the artworld. I offered a $150.00, (the generic value of a 500 word review in publications), to anybody who managed to write and publish a review of the show. Nobody took the bait or maybe I was too cheap.

Pedro Velez "Refrigerator Shows 1999-2003"

2008-01-26T11:11:00.001-08:00

Performance/action/curatorial process and social sculpture. I would decorate or re-arrange friends refrigerators. I would also curate my own fridge a hundred times.The final product is the documentation in the form of C-Prints.

Pedro Velez and his fans?

Pedro Velez Refrigerator Show at MAPR

Installation view at MAPR

Death and Metal

Gerald's Fridge and Artforum

HOPE/Brian Wilson in Illinois

installation at Museo Arte Puerto Rico

1707 West Division Fridge

Death of Luis Muñoz Marín (with original historical newspaper clippings)

Dead President

Metal Fridge

The land of signs
Art and the word as we know it
BY RANDI HOPKINS

JENNIFER RAMSEY AND PEDRO VELEZ: Refrigerator Show finds the individual in the quasi-mass-marketed.

"Five flights up in an old loft building in Chinatown, Oni Gallery is percolating its own fresh mix of art offerings, and the gallery’s dedication to giving support and shape to the new and often untested is turning this funky not-for-profit gallery into a center of significant art and performance activity. Spanning two floors, it’s a spacious and sociable space. Openings of exhibitions in the fifth-floor gallery are accompanied by a reception in the fourth-floor performance/film/readings space, which includes a couple of small tables set up in front of huge windows overlooking Washington Street — a great observation spot on a Saturday night."

"Another work that finds the individual in the quasi-mass-marketed is the large-scale photograph Refrigerator Show, by Jennifer Ramsey and Pedro Velez. A refrigerator plastered with postcards and posters from various art exhibitions stands in an ordinary kitchen, next to the sink, near a window sill with a meandering potted plant. But this is not a " found " or random photograph; the items on this refrigerator have been arranged by Velez, who is himself both an artist and a curator. The photograph reminds us that we all organize the ephemera of our particular lives in a way that reflects our visual tastes as well as our notion of what’s interesting or important. These days, some people’s refrigerators say more about them than their bookshelves or even their CD collections."

Issue Date: May 16-23, 2002

Beat Up Girls ( new paintings, collages, posters and other work 07-08)

2008-01-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Drunk Dictators in progress

Drunk Dictators Dhure

Arturo Madero

acrylic, graphite and ink on canvas

AV Rooster

acrylic, graphite and ink on canvas

Lindsay Lohan's Fidel Castro

in collaboration with Gamaliel Rodríguez

6x5 feet

Maggie

death and Hope

F Mega Jew

acrylic, ink and paper on bat

detail

The Drunken Govenors

paper on c-print

Cujo and Kacey

found poster and ink on paper

Senator Larry Craig

acrylic on photographic banner

detail

Wall Collages at abandoned building in Old San Juan

2008-01-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

Happiest Pelpes poster

back of poster

Uni Las Vas Rasfur Falut at Ingalls Associates, Miami '05

2008-01-09T05:53:00.000-08:00

review by Gean Moreno at Art US

Review
Visions and Apparitions
Smudging the line between fantasy and reality
By Carlos Suarez De Jesus
Published: October 6, 2005

Velez is known for his bogus exhibition announcements and for curating imaginary exhibits meant to challenge contemporary society's idea of tastemaking. His intent is to provoke debate and raise questions about meaning, morality, and wishful thinking.

Contemporary art novices trying to make sense of his show might feel swept under a tent-pole attraction of colossal scope. "Is this clown's aim here to orchestrate a hoax exhibit?" they might ask. Even Velez acknowledges his works appear slapdash but also somewhat contrived.

A wall of collages -- billed as "Altered book pages & flyers for fake exhibitions" and pitched at $300 a pop -- defies credibility. A collage, Rasf (Hope), 2004-05, featuring the black-and-white page 85 torn from the Illustrated History of Las Vegas, spotlights Wayne Newton and Bob Hope in dapper monkey suits babbling into a microphone in front of a glittery backdrop. Velez turned it into an artwork by scrawling the letters RASF on top in graffiti-style block letters.

Another in the series, Victory (Wolf), 2004, ripped from Aunt Louisa's Book of Fairy Tales, shows a fanged and yellow-eyed drooling wolf scratching at a window jamb. Underneath the line, "Open the door, my dear little kids," Velez simply added a stenciled row of black stars.

My favorite is Epilepsy, 2005, a page yanked from the artist's private high school (Disciples of Christ Academy) yearbook, where a sophomore Velez, sporting a powder-puff mop and caterpillar brows, leers like a chucklehead. The artist scribbled "Ni Tu Ni Nadi" (translation: "Neither You Nor Anybody") in an upper corner of this self-referential piece. It was refreshing to see he doesn't take himself too seriously.

"I use these collages as a hook to provoke a reaction," says Velez. "On opening night I was approached by a Puerto Rican girl who felt I was being a condescending joker and trying to fool the public. She told me, 'I get what you're saying but I still don't like the work,' and I'm cool with that," Velez remarks.

Deciding whether Velez is a multimedia mandarin on top of his game or the class wisenheimer who needs to take a time-out and reconsider a lazy assignment demands, as Chris Ingalls points out, an immersion into his process. "Pedro Velez's work is highly conceptual and might appear facile because he applies disparate techniques and incorporates ready-made materials like industrial banners with grommets and book pages to convey a message," Ingalls says.

Pairing Velez's work with Duran's begs the question: Did the curator match these exhibits to raise comparisons in terms of approach to workmanship?

"It was fortuitous," adds Ingalls. "Christian is extremely methodical and meticulous, with a spiritual and intellectual cast to his work. Pedro's methodology is to provoke thought, incorporating diverse strategies. I find it interesting, as someone who appreciates art, how their works contrast," Ingalls comments. "But these are two distinctly separate exhibits."

Velez's Pujwpbdbanr Fault Leran, 2005 is a large-scale, almost nonsensical graphite-on-wall drawing with a highly spontaneous vibe. He tweaks it into a collage by slapping a large dog-eared photograph onto the middle of the mural.

The photo, Emmi Mathis in a Bathtub Full of Bubbles by Melissa Shubeck, Curated by Pedro Velez, 2002 -- try saying that with a mouthful of marbles -- displays a teenage, Siamese cat-eyed girl with a wan smile, lounging in a cast-iron tub while covered with suds.

Reasonably, can the potential eyesore, depending on John Q. Spectator's opinion, pose a valid argument for squandering valuable gallery space?

"That photo is part of a series called Las Chicas Lindas de Pedro Velez," Velez offers. "The photo works well because the model is 'cute' and not beautiful. My mom is cute, so is the girl, but sometimes people don't grasp the difference when discussing issues of beauty. That's why I juxtaposed the photo over the mural and next to the 'beautiful' Benetton models, to make that point." Fair enough, one thinks.

Velez's punch-line conceptualism, designed to rake over notions of taste, hits the mark with his piece Puerto Rican-Jewish, 2005, a Benetton banner the artist found in New York City. He attached scraps of old paintings and a post card (also found) with the image of a Puerto Rican flag, superimposed by the Star of David, onto the banner.

Chris Ingalls pointed at a Benetton bimboy plastered across the piece and said, "During the opening, a lady told me he was the most gorgeous creature she had ever seen. Funny, I thought, the schlep looks like an anorexic, shaggy-maned Dolph Lundgren to me."

Godfuck at Galeria Comercial and Western Exhibitions 2006

2008-01-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Artforum ad for Exhibition GODFUCK at Galeria Comercial in Puerto Rico and Western Exhibitions Gallery in Chicago

The 4th Floor and Paintings at Western Exhibitions

2008-01-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

The Fourth Floor

curated by Pedro Velez

Western Exhibitions

Angelica Negron of Balún

r

Edra Soto, Gisela Insuaste y Hector Arce Espadas

installation view of the Fourth Floor, a documentary by Pedro Velez at Western Exhibitions

PEDRO VELEZ: PAINTINGS 1998-2003
February through May 2003

This exhibition is the first ever show devoted solely to paintings of Pedro Velez. Known primarily as a multi-media provocateur, Velez works as a conceptual artist, curator and writer. Few, however, know that Velez is also an accomplished "maker of things." Deceptively grungy, these post-minimalist paintings share the wit and imagination of his false exhibition announcements. Velez often starts with a found substrate (a ragged piece of masonite, huge chunks of styrofoam, discarded 2 x 4s, wood screws) and adds playful swaths of bouyant, pulsating acrylic paint, carefully applied fabrics and yarn, redeeming these humble materials. A critic once referred to Velez work as "painstakingly slipshod." Asked recently how these paintings could be described. Velez gave three answers:

"I think they are logical re-interpretations of a thousand other paintings made by a thousand other artists."
"Shit that goes well together."
"Sculptures with some paint on them."

more images:
Western Exhibitions

Pedro Velez studio in '99

Not Queer by Pedro Velez