Octopus Initiative Artist Derrick Velasquez
Derrick Velasquez’s artwork 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.
Velasquez was born in 1982, in Lodi, California. He 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. Velasquez has exhibited his works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Drexel University, Pearlstein Gallery in Philadelphia, Center for Visual Art, Denver, VAC University of Colorado, RedLine Contemporary Art Center, FOCA Biennial, New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Arvada Center for the Arts. He has been awarded by MacDowell Colony Fellow 2019, MassMoCA Assets for Artist Residency 2018 – 2019, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant 2017, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum Artist Fellow 2015, and the Colorado Creative Industries Career Advancement Award 2015.
