
Gustavo Vélez
“A clear harmony, where two movements meet, this is figurative abstraction.”
Gustavo Vélez (B. 1975) was born in Medellín, Colombia where he began his studies in art. After graduating from the Bellas Artes Institute and Eladio Velez Art School, Itaguí, he continued his education in the Lorenzo de’ Medici Art Institute in Florence (Italy), and concluded his studies at the workshops in Pietrasanta, Italy. The artist currently divides his time between Pietrasanta, New York (USA) and Medellín (Colombia). (Read More)
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Vélez has achieved international acclaim, successfully entering all branches of the art market, including Asia, the Americas, and Europe. In the last ten years he’s had various solo and collective exhibitions all over the world including Museum of the Imperial City of Beijing; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama; Contemporary Museum of Guayaquil, Ecuador; Museum of Modern Art of Cuenca, Ecuador; Museum of Modern Art of Quito, Ecuador; and the Museum of Art of Tolima, Colombia. In 2013, the maestro was elected as the featured talent for the annual solo exhibit in Pietrasanta, Italy. The history of the event features artists such as Igor Mitoraj, Luciano Vanji, Fernando Botero, Kan Yasuda, among others.
He is the youngest artist to be honored in the history of this yearly event. The exhibit Gustavo Vélez Scultore a Pietrasanta ran for three months and it spread out over the iconic Piazza del Duomo and Chiesa di Sant’Agustino, with 34 sculptures, some with weights up to 9 tons and over 7 meters in height
In 2013 Gustavo Vélez received “La Orden al Gran Caballero” from the Colombian Congress. In 2014 he was honored with “Orden de la Democracia Simón Bolívar” due to his achievements as an artist and recognition he brought to his country from overseas.
For a third consecutive year, both Sotheby’s and Phillips auction houses have included the sculptures of Vélez in their auctions of Latin American Art in New York, for which they have all attracted great interest and strong sales.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Biennale
2012 Biennale of Art Panama, Panama City, Panama
Important Exhibitions
2022 – 2023 Formas y Ritmos en la Dimensión Geométrica. Museo de Arte Moderno, República Dominicana
2015 – 2016 Gustavo Vélez, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
2015 Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy
2013 Gustavo Vélez Scultore a Pietrasanta, Italy
2011 Monumentalist, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, Ecuador
2010 Museo de Zhengzhou, China
Important Group Exhibitions
2018 KIAF
2016 Art Stage Singapore
Three Dimensional Artwork
2015 Homo Faber
How a Sculpture is Born
2014 Art Monaco
2012 Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City
2008 Incontro a Pietrasanta III
Permanent Collections
Governors of Tolima State Office, Colombia
Museum of Contemporary Art of Guayaquil, Ecuador
Museo dei Bozzetti, Pietrasanta, Italy
Akaska Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Hiki Hospital, Utsunomiya, Japan
Trump Ocean Club of Panama City, Panama