These personal and sometimes confrontational ceramic sculptures are based on traditional forms and surface decorations of Pre-Columbian ceramics but include the artist’s own image and reference her indigenous ancestry.
The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) will present Kukuli Velarde: Plunder Me, Baby, the first West Coast exhibition by the U.S.-based Peruvian artist Kukuli Velarde, who was born in Cusco in 1962 and moved to the U.S. in 1988. The 15 ceramic sculptures in the exhibition evoke a childhood memory that has haunted Velarde, of hearing her 16-year-old nanny declare "I don't speak Quechua" (the language of the Inca) in an attempt to hide her indigenous roots. To challenge this racism, Velarde creates personal and sometimes confrontational ceramic sculptures which are based on the traditional forms and surface decorations of Pre-Columbian ceramics but include the artist’s own image and reference her indigenous ancestry. Kukuli Velarde: Plunder Me, Baby was previously presented at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City in 2013. This presentation at AMOCA reunites all of the ceramic sculptures from that exhibition and augments them with a selection of Pre-Columbian ceramic objects to illustrate Velarde’s source material.
These personal and sometimes confrontational ceramic sculptures are based on traditional forms and surface decorations of Pre-Columbian ceramics but include the artist’s own image and reference her indigenous ancestry.
The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) will present Kukuli Velarde: Plunder Me, Baby, the first West Coast exhibition by the U.S.-based Peruvian artist Kukuli Velarde, who was born in Cusco in 1962 and moved to the U.S. in 1988. The 15 ceramic sculptures in the exhibition evoke a childhood memory that has haunted Velarde, of hearing her 16-year-old nanny declare "I don't speak Quechua" (the language of the Inca) in an attempt to hide her indigenous roots. To challenge this racism, Velarde creates personal and sometimes confrontational ceramic sculptures which are based on the traditional forms and surface decorations of Pre-Columbian ceramics but include the artist’s own image and reference her indigenous ancestry. Kukuli Velarde: Plunder Me, Baby was previously presented at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City in 2013. This presentation at AMOCA reunites all of the ceramic sculptures from that exhibition and augments them with a selection of Pre-Columbian ceramic objects to illustrate Velarde’s source material.
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