GUSTAVO VELEZESSERE GEOMETRICODecember 23, 2023 – April 14, 2024 City of Viareggio

The Municipality of Viareggio and Oblong Contemporary Art Gallery are pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition "ESSERE GEOMETRICO" by Colombian artist GUSTAVO VELEZ, which will be open to the public from December 23, 2023, to April 14, 2024."The sculptural translation of dance and music, arranged by Gustavo Velez in the land of noble marbles, following the geometric abstraction of shapes and lines, is an invitation to reflect on the concepts of balance, harmony, essentiality, cleanliness, lightness, and freedom, which concern not only art but, more notably, life itself," writes Domenico Piraina, art historian and director of the Civic Museums of Milan.Comprising 4 monumental works, set up along the promenade of Viale Regina Margherita, known as the "Passeggiata," and for the first time "at the top of the pier." The City of Viareggio has in recent years inaugurated a true dialogue with high-profile art. Famous leisure spots like the "Passeggiata" and the "Molo" now host the monumental creations of the Colombian artist.The decision to place the largest work, "GEOMETRIC CONE," 3 meters in height and 2 meters in diameter, enriched with a granite bench that will allow everyone to sit and enjoy the panorama, right "at the top of the pier," was a courageous and forward-thinking choice by the City's Department of Culture. A place of leisure for fishermen and a moment of dialogue between the sea and the mountains.The core of Gustavo Velez's works also represents one of the most important historical-artistic traditions of the territory, sculpture. Here, the greatest sculptors in history have always worked with the stone materials of the Apuan Alps, including the statuary white known worldwide as sculptural stone for its preciousness.The Viareggio promenade is an open-air museum, one of the most charming places in the elegant Tuscan city, a privileged cultural space, and an always accessible exhibition space where you can breathe history and savor the refinement of Galileo Chini's work.

There are three works by Gustavo Velez made of marble and steel. The sculptures can be freely admired by the public throughout the exhibition period.The installed works are the Geometric Cone, placed at the end of the Pier. Triptych at the beginning of the Promenade near Burlamacca, Flower in the Promenade in front of Via Eleonora Duse, while Geometric Expansion, the only steel work, is set up in the Promenade near Gran Caffè Margherita.Velez's sculptural vision, refined, geometric, essential, and clean, both in lines and plastic materials, carefully chosen, has made him a beloved and appreciated artist worldwide. His research focuses on abstract form and surface, always treated to enhance the beauty, uniqueness, and peculiarity of the material.Velez is a true sculptor; as an artist, he tightens the form into an essential vision, rich in suggestions, permeated with beauty and light, crossed by full and empty spaces that revolve around an invisible but firm central element like the perspective point, from whose vanishing point the entire structure of the work is built. This last characteristic refers to an architectural conception, where the supporting element of the sculpture is its congruence, its ability to rise and show a conceptual and projective root of considerable intellectual thickness, and where the creativity and vision of the artist open up to reveal his poetic.Gustavo Velez was born in 1975 in Medellín, Colombia; his works are present in numerous prestigious public and private collections worldwide.In Japan, he has exhibited in galleries in Tokyo, Utsunomiya, Iwaki, and Yokohama. For several years, Velez has been a promoter of cultural exchanges with artists from Japan and Korea. One of his monumental sculptures (Flying, Korean White Marble) is part of the collection of the Art Valley Sculpture Park in Seoul, South Korea.In China, Velez has exhibited in renowned galleries and museums such as the Zhengzhou Imperial City Museum and has monumental sculptures in cities like Shenzhen and Nanjing, among others.In Europe, his works have been exhibited in galleries and museums in France, Italy, and Spain. In Italy, he has consolidated his career in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, the city of sculpture and

sculptors, where he arrived in 1996 and where he concentrates much of the realization of his marble and bronze works.In the Americas, he has participated in fairs and exhibitions in the United States, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, and Peru. His sculptures have been exhibited at the Archaeological and Contemporary Museum of Guayaquil, the Museum of Modern Art of Cuenca, and the Museum of Modern Art of Quito, Ecuador. As well as in the Art Museum of Tolima, Colombia.His inclination for monumentality and the invitation to exhibit in his native country led him to create the exhibition "Gustavo Vélez Cartagena de Indias," displayed in the main squares of the Historic Center and in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena, the Historical Museum, and the Museum of Fortifications, becoming the largest exhibition of monumental sculpture ever seen in the city.In recent years, he has held solo exhibitions at the Duque Arango Gallery in Medellín, the Art of the World Gallery in Houston, Texas, and the Enlace Arte Contemporáneo gallery in Lima, Peru.One of his monumental sculptures, Cosmic, is part of the permanent collection of the new office complex of the technology company Apple located in San Diego, California.He recently held an exhibition in the Dominican Republic with monumental works in UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as medium and small-sized creations at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santo Domingo and other iconic places in the country.In Colombia, his permanent works are exhibited at the Pontifical Bolivarian University, the Sabaneta metro station, and the Santo Domingo metro station in Medellín. As well as in the main parks of the municipalities of Bello and Fredonia, in the Art Museum of Tolima in Ibagué.