Gustabo Velasquez

Seminal Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Gustabo Velasquez in Gallery Two, titled Sinner and Saint / Pecador y Santo, on view from February 14 through March 21, 2009. An artist's reception will be held on Friday, February 13, from 6 to 9 p.m.

Based in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico, and currently a candidate in the Masters of Fine Arts program at New York University, Gustabo Velasquez’s work focuses on human migration and how it intersects with and leaves traces on the physical landscape. His daily commutes to and from school, or back and forth across the border, provide the ideas and raw material for his patchwork constructions, which integrate formal visual aspects with issues of immigration. Velasquez transforms the unwanted “castoffs” that he finds on the streets with the eye of a painter who uses found colors, texture, shape and line, instead of creating every element from scratch. His layered compositions incorporate drawings, text, collage, photos, prints, stitched fabrics and house paints, creating a dialogue between the history of these recycled objects and his own personal experiences.

Through these transformations, Gustabo Velasquez has come to recognize the ephemeral nature of objects as an important tool in enabling him to become conscious of unexpected connections between the objects that surround him and his everyday environment. The left for dead waste represents more than just interesting visual surfaces. He sees these broken, scorched, tarred, and oxidized layers as qualities in himself related to the impermanence of his own body, his memories, and the relationships that he has built along the way. This search has allowed him the ability to embrace all provisions as a potential framework for an idea: each discovery generated is like a small section to this ever-evolving jigsaw puzzle, where there is an overall image waiting to emerge. In this way, his life is his most important source material.

Sinner and Saint

Pecador Y Santo

February 14- March 21, 2009

Press Release