Kukuli Velarde

Kukuli Velarde (born November 29, 1962) is a Peruvian artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She specializes in painting and ceramic sculptures made out of clay and terra-cotta. Velarde focuses on the themes of gender and the repercussions of colonization on Latin American history, with a particular interest in Peru. Her ceramics consist of unusual body positions, childlike faces, and works that have been molded from her own face as well. Though recognized as a talented painter, Velarde felt pressure to continue doing art, which led to her having a fallout with her craft. In 1988, she headed to the United States, where she continued her artwork by creating ceramic sculptures and received her Bachelor in Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York.

Artwork

We, The Colonized Ones From 1990 to 1992, Velarde worked on and exhibited her series We, The Colonized Ones in New York. a series of ceramic sculptures, is one of Velarde's works that has been shown in different exhibitions throughout the United States and Peru. The American Museum of Ceramic Art, explains Velarde's inspiration for this show as a childhood memory where her nanny denied her indigenous roots by claiming she couldn't speak the Inca language Quechua, This series is also a commentary on women's bodies and female sexuality by displaying female body parts. The Complicit Eye considers the female body and beauty standards in terms of patriarchal society through self portraits from the last 14 years. Taller Puertorriqueño explains how the exhibition comments on society's definition of femininity and its relation to Latina bodies, specifically in Western culture where Latin American women are expected to look a certain way. Paintings included show female bodies with different ideas of femininity, such as "pin up" style and "goddess" like features that show sculpted legs and exaggerated breast size, with the face of the artist attached.

Notable works in public collections Santa Chingada: The Perfect Little Woman (1999–2000), acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign. Atragantada (1997–2001), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston La Linda Nasca (2011), Art Institute of Chicago Daddy Likee? (2018), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Awards She has been awarded First Place from the Virginia Groot Foundation in 2023. On 2000 Velarde received an Anonymous Was A Woman Award for sculpture and installation. In 2009 received a United States Artists Fellowship. Velarde is one of the 2015 recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship, given out by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for her excellence in the fine arts. She was also the Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship recipient (1997–1998). This fellowship allowed Velarde studio space in The Clay Studio in Philadelphia and a solo exhibition. Here she displayed her exhibition Isichapuitu, which consisted of Pre-Columbian inspired ceramic pieces that told an old Peruvian folk tale about the resurrection of a female spirit. Plunder Me Baby: An Installation, 2007 "Doug Herren: The Strength of Silence",Ceramic Monthly, 2002 Kukuli Velarde : Cántaros de Vida (The Isichapuita Series), 2002 "Isichapuitu",Ceramics Monthly, 1998 Kukuli, 1977