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Kukuli Velarde is a Peruvian-American artist based in Philadelphia. Velarde is a multi-talented artist, working in ceramic, painting, drawing, and installation. Much of her work draws on pre-Columbian traditional forms and iconographies, highlighting colonized and syncretic identities and aesthetic systems. Velarde received a BFA from Hunter College in New York City. She is the recipient of such awards as the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2012), and Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1997). Her work can be found in the collections of Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Lima, Lima, Perú; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, among many others.

"I believe that my work continues the efforts that were initiated at the time of conquest by my ancestors in order to survive as culture. In my work I approach Pre-Columbian aesthetics searching for cultural and ethnic commonalities, claiming them as my heritage while engaging the audience in conversations about colonization and coloniality, contemporary history, social injustice and racism. I envision societies with symmetrical opportunities for their different aesthetics to blossom. I envision a pluriversal aesthetic landscape where we all have the opportunity to be ourselves without ethnic, racial or cultural labels that undermines the power of our artistic speech.”

The lecture in Spanish will be at 10 a.m. The lecture in English will be at 12:10 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Visual Culture, History Department, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Growth and Structure of Cities, History of Art, LAILS, and Museum Studies.