Best Painter
Paco Velez
[
{
"name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 1",
"component": "29441156",
"insertPoint": "1/3",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "9",
"parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
},{
"name": "Top Stories Video Pair",
"component": "27651162",
"insertPoint": "10",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "1",
"parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
},{
"name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 2",
"component": "29441158",
"insertPoint": "2/3",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "10",
"parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
},{
"name": "Air - MedRect Combo - Inline Content 3",
"component": "29441159",
"insertPoint": "1000",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "15",
"parentWrapperClass": "fdn-ads-inline-content-block"
}
]
Thirty-something Velez gave Tucson an art attack last fall with his explosive paintings and installations in the Bajo La Frontera/Under the Border at MOCA. The visual cacophony of Ambos Nogales, the twin border towns where Velez grew up, crowded into his big cartoon canvases and spilled into Mexican-style shrines. Giant bunnies, Minutemen, graffiti and monster teeth--painted, scratched and collaged onto canvas--mirrored what Velez calls the visual "overload" of the border. Skewering the deadly politics of the international line, Velez re-created the hated border wall, and honored the dead of the nearby deserts by illuminating it with candles.
© 2025 Tucson Weekly
