Nascido em 1980, Mateu Velasco é formado em Desenho Industrial pela PUC-Rio desde 2003, é mestre em Design Gráfico pela mesma universidade.
Desenhista desde pequeno, começou a trabalhar profissionalmente como ilustrador em 1999.
Expandiu sua atuação profissional pintando murais públicos no início dos anos 2000, desenvolvendo uma linguagem própria como artista visual, que pode ser encontrada em muros e galerias de São Paulo,
Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Nova York, Paris e Milão, entre outras cidades pelo mundo. Atualmente trabalha em seu estúdio como artista visual e ilustrador, e paralelamente pinta murais em grande escala para festivais e clientes particulares.
É professor no departamento de Artes
e Design da PUC-Rio, representado pela Galeria Movimento Arte Contemporânea desde 2008
e artista residente da Casa Voa.
Os murais pintados pelo artista tiveram importância fundamental para evolução da arte urbana carioca, pois traziam um estilo próprio de ilustração que incluía a uma boa dose de design gráfico, – em cores, estilo e acabamento – evidenciando seu trabalho como um diálogo aberto entre Rua e Academia, gerando uma linguagem própria de pintura e desenho.
Artista em deslocamentos, Mateu passou nos últimos anos por diferentes cidades e países, incorporando a cada viagem novos elementos ao seu universo imagético.
Ao longo dessa jornada vem colecionando imagens do seu cotidiano, transformando-as em desenhos, rabiscos, esboços e grafismos diversos. Cada fragmento da realidade – agora no papel com o traço do artista – constrói um universo familiar e estranho, fantástico e belo. A junção de cada fragmento constitui o fio
condutor do seu processo criativo, convidando o espectador para novas possibilidades
de narrativas visuais e poéticas.
Mateu Velasco was born in New York City in 1980, but spent the better part of his life living and working in Rio de Janeiro. He is one of a small group of multimedia artists from Brazil’s arts capital who have caught the attention of international collectors in recent years. Known for his distinct, explosive style, Velasco has been hailed as one of the few young Brazilian talents who can move with ease between innovative styles, unexplored themes, and deep into the murky depths of the social conscience.
His work—whether it be paintings on public walls or gallery canvases, objects, or animation—flip the everyday humdrum on its head, presenting the viewer with a new vision of the unnoticed, awe-inspiring interpretations of those crevices in the waking hours that otherwise would escape our thoughts.
Velasco is a graduate from the prestigious Pontifícia Universidade Católica, one of Rio’s premier Arts and Design universities. After completing his bachelor’s degree in industrial design in 2003, where the young artist attended advanced courses in carving, illustration, computer graphics and experimental calligraphy courses, Mateu took his classical skills to the Rio’s gritty urban core. His street work in Rio is known for transcending common ideas of graffiti, and helped raise the bar in the early days of the city’s street art boom.
The experimental style Velasco created over years of painting on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Paris, Lisbon and Budapest, has a direct influence on the artist’s gallery and illustration work. But, once removed from the hustle of the public life, the powerful visuals from Velasco’s hands no longer fight for attention with the crowded urban landscape, presenting viewers with a thought-provoking focal point that commands meditation and introspection.
The artist’s vibrant, fragmented representations of life enjoyed for the sake of living are both invitations for repose and the starting point for a internal dialogue the viewer may chose to have with him or herself. Velasco’s work offers viewers a break from a world obsessed with obsession, a chance to open the mind to the poetic possibilities of an existence withdrawn from the sometimes schizophrenic pace of modern living.
Velasco’s technical mastery and exploration of meaningful themes so often overlooked by other contemporary artists has gained his work a strong following of fans and international collectors. His frequent solo shows at Rio’s Galeria Movimento, one of the city’s most progressive galleries, draw an equal mix of fellow street artists, emerging contemporary talent, and both newly arrived and seasoned collectors.
A tireless creator, Velasco does not limit himself to one media and is bold in the democratic use of his work. His paintings are as likely to be seen on the walls in Rio’s Laranjeiras neighborhood or the gallery wall as they are in one of the campaigns for major lifestyle brands like Ambev, Nike, Converse, Totem, just to name a few. Velasco’s artistic production, which takes cues from influences as varied as Klimt and Basquiat, melds high art concepts with graphic design in seamless manner that blurs whatever line remains between the two in the 21st century seamlessly, making him a highly sought after artist for a range of quality products and visual campaigns.