Cristina Velasquez
Cristina Velásquez (Colombia) is a visual artist working mainly with photography and weaving. Her work investigates representation and translation in the context of transcultural relationships —both as mechanisms for oppression and silencing, as well as powerful tools for connection and resistance. She is interested in the way one culture translates another, and how inevitably, a dominant culture sanitizes and reduces the other in a subtle, and not so subtle, continuity of colonialism.
Velásquez explores the ways social constructions of value, such as, race, class, and labor distribution, are shaped by images and language, echoing a larger system of power and exchange that goes beyond borders and nationality. Velásquez asks how photography and weaving might be called upon to further the understanding of social politics, history, and narrative, particularly in relation to Latin American studies.
Cristina Velásquez (b.1985, Colombia) received an MFA degree in Advanced Photographic Studies from Bard College and the International Center of Photography (New York, 2017), where she was awarded the ICP Director’s Scholarship. Most recently, Cristina was recognized by the Light Work Artist-In-Residency program, the Women in Photography (WIPNYC) grant and mentorship program, and The Baxter Street Camera Club of New York, annual competition, 2017. Cristina is a Curator for New Poetics of Labor, and has taught in State University of New York and The International Center of Photography, NY.
Cristina’s work has most notably been exhibited at ICP Museum, Houston Center for Photography, School of The International Center of Photography, and City University of New York. Her piece Fuerte, Obrera y Libre, was recently acquired to be part of the permanent collection at Museo de Antioquia, Colombia. Her publications, Al camello camello y al amor amor, Montañera, /100, and One way of letting go, are part of the collection of the The International Center of Photography Library (New York).
www.cristinavelasquez.com
