Artist Overview
Carlos Velázquez transforms bold abstractions into expansive landscapes.
Artistic Journey
At first, his canvases may look abstract, but then the elements—trees, hills, water—gradually come into focus. Velázquez builds up areas of bold color on the surface of the canvas to create broad vistas.
Velázquez developed his artistic sensibilities as a child in rural Peru, as a teenager in Mexico City, and later at the University of California, Davis. In the 1970s, he moved to New York City and The Studio School, beginning a sustained exploration of texture, color, and light. There he studied under Nicolas Carone and Mercedes Matter, whose influence shaped his artistic path.
He returns regularly to San Miguel de Allende, where the town’s beauty and colors feed his imagination. Velázquez also maintains a studio in the South Bronx, where he is continually inspired by the city’s vibrant energy. Alongside his practice, he devoted much of his career to mentoring students in New York, guiding them to develop their artistic voices through collaboration and exploration.
“Evidently for Velázquez, the view serves as a visual metaphor of organized space… compositions that only allude to landscape without literally describing it.”
—Helen Harrison, The New York Times
His dual connection to Mexico and New York reflects the balance of natural beauty and urban intensity that defines his work.
