| Dates: | born 1965
| | Biography: | (artist biography as of 2006)
Humberto Velez
Born 1965, Panama. Lives in
Manchester, UK
Selected solo exhibitions
The Skyline, 2006, kite parade,
Egilsstadir, North East Iceland
Regatta Cantata, 2005, in association
with Artwayofthinking. parade and
regatta, Venice, Italy
Artists United. 2005, hip hop dance
football match, The Sharrow Festival,
Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield. UK
The Mancunian Way, 2004, Victoria
Baths, Manchester, UK
LAvventura. 2002, St Peter's Vauxhall,
London. UK
Instalaciones, 2000, Museo de Arte
Contemporaneo Panama City, Panama
Selected group exhibitions
VII Panama Biennial. 2005. Panama
Central American Biennale, 2004
Shanghai Biennale, 2004
For the Time Being (A Promise of
Progress), 2004
VIII Havana Biennial, 2003. Havana, Cuba
FlyPitch. 2003, Brixton Market. London.
UK
Multiple City, 2003, Panama City,
Panama
III Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima, 2002,
Peru
Do It (Central American version), 2002,
TeorEtica, San Jose. Costa Rica
Periferic Biennial, 2001, lasi Romania
Intrusiones urbanas en el arte joven
panameho, 2001, Centra Cultural Andres
Bello, Bogota, Colombia
Further reading
'VIII Bienal de La Habana', Artforum
International (February 2004)
Gerardo Mosquera and Adrienne Samos
(and other authors), Multiple City
Panama, Urban Art and Global Cities:
An Experiment in Context, Amsterdam:
Kit Publishers, 2005
One Hundred Years of Art in Panama,
1903-2003, exh. cat., Panama City:
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo
Cay Sophy Rabinowitz, 'Seen Being
Seen', Parkett, 68 (2003)
Adrienne Samos, '"God is Love, If There
is Stuffed Fish". A New Focus on
Panamanian Art', Atlantica, 31 (Centro
Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Palmas de
Gran Canaria, 2001)
http://www.bienaipanama.org
http://www.gasworks.org.uk/
varts/hum_vel/
| | | Source: | "Liverpool Biennial Liverpool 06", exhibition catalogue | | | Date of source: | 2006 |
|
| | Personal Profile: | My practice is based in the possibilities
of working together with different kinds of
groups of individuals and what I call their
capacity to produce aesthetics, and
therefore different concepts of culture,
power and ethics, from their lifestyle. My
starting point is human relationships,
especially those involved in the process
of making the artwork.
This subject is derived from my practice
and ideas in developing a non-Western
mainstream aesthetic and making use of
diverse materials and techniques
appropriated from both the popular and
the high-tech, the traditional and the
contemporary realms.
| | Personal Profile Source: | "Liverpool Biennial Liverpool 06", exhibition catalogue | | Personal Profile Source Date: | 2006 | | Description: | Humberto Velez defines himself as a
paradoxical nomad: one obsessed with
the local. For him every place
constitutes a fascinating cultural
crossroads overflowing with differences,
similarities, tensions and constant
change. He has worked or lived in
different parts of the world, and wherever
he goes his central focus is the
prevailing cultural dynamics. Human
relations - on which he bases his
creative process - are as significant as
the final artwork. He is mostly concerned
with sharing ideas and moments,
revealing the capacity of communities to
create their own aesthetics, their
reappropriation of public spaces, and the
ways in which 'outsiders' react to their
distinct cultural manifestations. He
thus 'explores the way in which people
relate emotionally and verbally to their
corporal, psychic and geographical
territories', as Adrienne Samos has
pointed out.
Recently Velez has worked with a
popular marching band that paraded at
the 'wrong' place and time, built and
destroyed a pihata with a Chinese
community, and organised a regatta with
the immigrant population of Venice.
Velez is quick to distinguish his activity
from community art, which is entirely
generated by a specific group of people.
The community must be an active agent,
but his art also entwines personal
memories, dreams, visions, and the
determination to play at inventing new
worlds.
Gerardo Mosquera
| | Description Source: | "Liverpool Biennial Liverpool 06", exhibition catalogue | | Description Source Date: | 2006 | | Gender: | male | | Type: | person |
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