Exhibitions
Title: The geography of plants
Year: 2018
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimension: 24 x 24 in
Biography
Ana was born in Bogotá, Colombia. Growing up, she moved between Nicaragua (her
mother’s homeland) while it was undergoing the throes of dictatorship and revolution; Colombia while it was ravaged by narco-terrorism and Cambridge, MA where she was exposed at an early age to a diverse and intelectual community. These inspiring and turbulent environments heightened Ana’s sense of awareness and social conscience and solidified her motivation to use art as a way to spark reflexion, conversation and change.
A representational painter whose work is characterized by its equal focus on both landscapes and figures, Ana is interested in melding art historical and personal references into painterly abstractions that form affecting snapshots of contemporary existence. Velasco’s diaristic and universally relevant paintings present drastically diverse narratives that explore how to transform a helicopter into a river, alchemize a mountain top into a bullfight ring, or unify an intimate dinner with a spectacle at a soccer stadium. One element flows into another, leaving behind a translucent trace of dreamlike memories. The layered scenes often depict epic battlefields and sports arenas, yet the turmoil meets a paradoxical celebratory calm. Her practice shares no central formula, and instead functions as part of a whole that provides insight into her political ethos. At times with humorous touch she captures the psychological tension of her subjects, revealing a glimpse into another realm, leading the viewers through fantastic tales that invite them to weave their own story.
With an MFA from The School of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Tufts University, her works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art La Tertulia, Colombia, Bank of America, Boston and The Colombian Consulate in NYC among others. Ana lives and works in Brooklyn NYC.