Embriagantes
Issue 1
Artist Volumes Series
Cristina Velásquez
New Poetics Publishing
English
Edited by Cristina Velásquez and Nechama Winston
Text by Ericka Florez and Cristina Velásquez
Softcover
Edition of 300
16 pages
170 x 230 mm
2023
ISSN 29815320
Cristina Velásquez compositions build on and react to visual tropes that emerged from centuries of colonial imagery. She questions this legacy from the perspective of her native Colombia, addressing deeper questions about labor and identity in Latin America. Human bodies figure prominently in the work, where nature and technology function as extensions of the body. Rather than illustrating working bodies in a conventionally documentary way, isolated limbs frequently replace faces in stylized, almost sculptural arrangements.
Velásquez engages the politics of depiction, displaying, and viewing by complicating the relationships between who is being described, who depicts, and who looks – creating a rich world of contrasts and uneasy juxtapositions. There is simultaneously a playful dialogue between the photographic studio and the portrait through her use of a synthetic background. Sometimes people stand behind a curtain, barely visible, exposing small fragments that pique the viewer’s curiosity. Glimpses into life experiences, ambiguously found or constructed, provide a sense of a person portrayed, depicting a non-essentialized and expansive view of Latin American identities.
(Source: https://www.newpoeticsoflabor.com/artist-volumes/p/cristina-velasquez)
About the Artist
Cristina Velásquez (b. Colombia) is an artist and publisher based between Austin and Bogotá. She received an MFA from the Bard College–International Center of Photography program in New York City in 2017. Velásquez’s work has been exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée, the ICP Museum, ArtBo, MoMA PS1, the Houston Center for Photography, among others, and is held in both private and public collections. Her photobooks have been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Research Institute, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, ICP, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and George Washington University, among others.
Recent awards and residencies include the Lucie Scholarship Prize (2025), Yaddo Residency (2025), the Dust Collective Prize (2025), the Ramona Residency (2025), ReGeneration4 at the Musée de l’Elysée (2020), Light Work (2019), the Carol Crow Fellowship (2019), and the Kris Graves Projects LOST II Book Prize (2019). Velásquez is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of New Poetics Publishing, an independent press that collaborates with emerging artists on contemporary and experimental approaches to photography in book form. She is also the art director at Paisajes Coloniales. Velásquez is represented by Assembly Gallery.
https://www.cristinavelasquez.com
(Source: https://www.cristinavelasquez.com/contact)
About the Publisher
New Poetics Publishing is an independent publishing house based between Bogotá and New York, founded by artists Nechama Winston and Cristina Velásquez. New Poetics Publishing is part of New Poetics of Labor, a research platform founded in 2017. New Poetics Publishing collaborates with emerging artists on contemporary and experimental approaches to photography in the book form. We disseminate diverse visual perspectives, narratives and aesthetics, seeking to feature underrepresented voices in the photographic discourse. Through photography we contribute to alternative modes of learning and thinking. New Poetics Publishing prioritizes producing high quality affordable books. Our approach to publishing allows us to work in close collaboration with artists from start to finish, with all design and editing done in-house. Production is done locally and by close friends.
https://www.newpoeticsoflabor.com/
(Source: https://www.newpoeticsoflabor.com/about)
