Gustavo Vélez’s sculpture, although it is commonly pointed out a similarity and closeness to the procedures and materials of those great masters, actually operates in the exact opposite way. Vélez opposes the tripod of the sculptors of the past to a single axis on which it seems that the pieces are magically held in full equilibrium.
His work is present almost all over the world:
For more than 10 years, the work of Gustavo Velez has had a high presence in the Asian continent in exhibitions, participation in art fairs, as well as the installation of sculptures in public and private collections in China, Japan, Korea, Arab Emirates and Singapore.
In Japan, he has exhibited in galleries in Tokyo, Utsunomiya, Iwaki and Yokohama. For several years Gustavo has been a promoter of cultural exchange with artists from Japan and Korea. For this reason, he was invited in 2008 to the exhibition on the occasion of the centenary of bilateral relations between Japan and Colombia.
One of his monumental sculptures (Flying, Korean White Marble) is part of the collection of the Art Valley Sculpture Park in Seoul (Korea).
In China, Velez has held exhibitions in renowned galleries and museums such as the Museum of the Imperial City of Zhengzhou and has monumental sculptures in cities such as Shenzhen and Nanjing, among others.
In Europe, his works have been exhibited in Fairs, Galleries and Museums in France, Italy and Spain.
In Italy, he has an already consolidated career as an artist present in Pietrasanta, a region of Tuscany where he arrived in 1996 and where he concentrates most of the creation of his works in marble and bronze.
In 2013 he was chosen for the solo exhibition of sculpture that takes place in this Italian town, cradle of sculptors worldwide and that in its rich history has artists such as Igor Mitoraj, Luciano Vanji, Novello Finotti, Gio Pomodoro, Fernando Botero, Manolo Valdez, among others. With this exhibition Gustavo becomes the youngest artist to intervene the emblematic Piazza del Duomo and the Chiesa di Sant`Agostino with bronze, steel and marble sculptures that reached up to seven meters in height and eight tons in weight.
In July 2015, he was invited along with sculptors Igor Mitoraj and Fernando Botero for the exhibition “Homo Faber” in which Velez participated with monumental works that embellished the Parco della Versiliana during the Italian summer.
His most recent projects are the elaboration of a monumental work of 16 meters high, made of steel, which will be installed in Forte dei Marmi, Italy. As well as the preparation of a traveling exhibition that will start in 2023 at the airports of Pisa and Florence. In addition, he was chosen to permanently install a monumental sculpture in the main traffic circle of the access from the highway to the mecca of world sculpture, also called “Little Athens”, Pietrasanta (Italy).
In the Americas, he has participated in fairs and exhibitions in the United States, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and Peru.
His sculptures could be seen during 2011 and 2012 at the Museo Arqueológico y Contemporáneo de Guayaquil, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Cuenca and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Quito, in Ecuador. As well as in the Museo de Arte del Tolima (Colombia).
His inclination for monumentality and an invitation to exhibit in his native country, led him to realize the exhibition “Gustavo Vélez Cartagena de Indias” inaugurated in December 2015, with 17 monumental sculptures, mostly made by the artist in Italy, and 30 works of medium format. The exhibition intervened for three months in the main squares of the Historic Center and museums such as the Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena, the Historical Museum and the Museum of Fortifications, becoming the largest exhibition of monumental sculpture ever seen in the city.
“Cosmic” one of his monumental sculptures is part of the permanent collection of the new office complex of the technology company Apple located in San Diego, California.
In the Dominican Republic he has monumental works in places declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, as well as medium and small format creations in the Museum of Contemporary Art of Santo Domingo and other iconic places of this country.
In 2021 he held a solo exhibition at the Duque Arango Gallery “Ejercicios de equilibrio al borde del vacío” (Balancing exercises at the edge of the void).
