Derrick Velasquez is an artist and exhibition organizer who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. He holds a BA in studio arts and in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MFA from The Ohio State University. His most recent exhibitions include solo shows at The Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis; The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Robischon Gallery, Denver; Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia; and The Black Cube Nomadic Museum, also in Denver. He has had recent group exhibitions at Flowers Gallery and Transmitter, both in New York, and The Frame Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He is a 2017 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors.
Velasquez’s work places sculpture and installation in conversation with architecture and design. His focus on the aesthetics of contemporary residential buildings critiques the social, political, and economic forces affecting our everyday experience within a city. Through observation and research, he uses and manipulates common construction materials and ornamental elements to at once parody historical bourgeois aesthetics and challenge highbrow modern architecture, art, and design. These works appear in the form of large-scale installations and sculptures, as well as photography, collage, and other media. His works suggest the deep connection between our bodies and the buildings and structures we interact with on a daily basis.
