About

Christopher Anthony Velasco (b. 1983) is a photographer and performance artist based in Los Angeles, known for his exploration of the queer brown body and his innovative blend of horror and camp aesthetics. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from UC Santa Barbara in 2019 and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in 2011.

Velasco has contributed to his field through various internships, including positions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) and UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center and Library as a Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern. He is an adjunct professor at Moorpark Community College, East Los Angeles College, and CSSSA (California State Summer School of the Arts).

His work has been prominently featured in exhibitions at esteemed venues such as the Art Center College of Design, AD&A Museum, Avenue 50 Studios, the California Institute of the Arts, the Hibbleton Gallery, the Getty Museum, and the Vincent Price Art Museum. Furthermore, Velasco has collaborated with Harry Gamboa, Jr., notably through Virtual Verite, and performed at Los Angeles Union Station, UC Santa Barbara, and LAST Projects.

Artist Statement

My photographic works explore performance-based encounters within the structured boundaries of photography, challenging notions of purpose and permanence. I capture moments of ephemerality in disfigured and evolving bodies that delve into layers of forgotten memories. Through uncanny loops and camp aesthetics, I intertwine these narratives. 

I aim to capture fleeting moments of awareness, creating visual vignettes that go beyond the original subjects and settings. My photography portrays the delicate balance between existence and metaphor, using my own identity as a medium to assert visual characterizations.

I believe in defying role-playing and surrender as acts that resist the control imposed on imagery, infusing my work with urgency and a positive charge.