Kukuli Velarde Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1962 -

About Kukuli Velarde

I am a Peruvian artist with American citizenship. Born in 1962.I left Peru as an adult, already aware of its racial, social, cultural and economic climate. The society I came from was formed through the violent encounter between two cultural streams: the European and the indigenous world. My cultural background is the sum of a continuous hybridization- a cultural context defined, redefined and tormented by the simultaneous influences of pre-Columbian, Colonial, and Republican eras.

Latin contemporary culture, its finest expression: family ties, and myself as result, are together the frame within which my work evolves. It adopts from a general point of view the fashion of conversation, following the cultural path of Westernized Latin America popular speech. In that context, it is common to speak candidly, even if it gets to be dramatically painful.

I like my work to be emphatic and share intimacy with the audience. Overt communication makes us vulnerable yet it may strengthen interaction and deepen bonds. I do not mind becoming "vulnerable" if in the process common grounds are established and a relationship is created with the viewer.My mediums are painting on aluminum plates and ceramic installations. At the moment I am working in two series/installations. CADAVERS which involves life size self-portraits paintings and PLUNDER ME BABY which involves ceramic scupltures with a precolumbian inspiration,