Petro Vélez

An image of a girl sitting on a chair on the right side, texts on the left side.
An image of a girl sitting on a chair on the right side, texts on the left side.

Pedro Vélez, Twitter Review (Flyer from the Poster Barrier installation), 2013. Photographic banners and acrylic, dimensions variable. Collection of the artist. Photograph by Pedro Vélez

Born 1973 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Lives and Works in Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI

Much of Pedro Vélez’s recent work as in the prints merge his interests in art and art criticism into what he calls “visual essays” resembling the look and feel of movie or pop music posters. For the Biennial, Vélez has overlaid quotations by prominent art critics onto images depicting art world figures (including the authors of the quotations themselves) and art world sites such as the Whitney’s future location in downtown Manhattan. Some of the quotes are scathingly critical; others are poetically cryptic. Taken together, Vélez’s prints create a vibrant, stream-of-consciousness commentary on a variety of issues, encompassing economics, aesthetics, and race, in the contemporary art scene.

In addition, the artist is distributing freely available postcards that “review” the Biennial and are available in lower level Robert J. Hurst Family gallery.


On View
Lower Gallery 

Pedro Vélez’s work is on view in the Museum’s Robert J. Hurst Family gallery (Lower Gallery).

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.