Duane Reed Gallery Presents The Song I Came to Sing

Michael Velliquette The Song I Came to Sing

Front: “Our newly awakened powers cry out for unlimited fulfillment”, 2020, paper sculpture, 30” x 8” x 8” Above: Detail of “Our newly awakened powers cry out for unlimited fulfillment”.

Michael Velliquette “The Song I Came To Sing”

Duane Reed Gallery

“My soul is alright with your infinitude of stars”, 2021, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 3”

“The song I came to sing”, 2021, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 2”

Detail: “It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being

“It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being”, 2021, paper sculpture, 16” x 6” x 6”

“The fullness of experience in the emptiness of awareness”, 2022, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 6.5”

“All seeming things shine with the light of pure knowledge”, 2019, paper sculpture, 18” x 8” x 8”

Alternate view: The love that would soak down into the center of being”

“The love that would soak down into the center of being”, 2020, paper sculpture, 20” x 20” x 8”

The self-aware mind is always attempting to place the self within a context, trying to understand our surroundings and how we fit within them. A shift in scale, use, or perspective induces our perception of our surrounding environment to adapt, along with our emotional response or relationship to object, space, and ourselves.

Michael Velliquette’s choice to work with an everyday material like paper affords him the freedom to think fantastically on a small scale. Today we take paper for granted, but few developments in human history have had as great an impact on culture and learning as the invention of paper. It can be made incredibly strong and last for centuries, yet it can completely disintegrate when exposed to the elements. This inherent vulnerability lends itself perfectly to Velliquette’s fortified yet delicate structures, which are solid yet airy, precise yet organic.

Each symmetrical structure highlights the materiality and ephemeral quality of a humble, lightweight material. They are at once abstract layers and shapes made from colored paper, and also structures that from one moment to the next suggest fortress-like constructions, tiered mandalas, or complex mechanical gears. Velliquette redefines the unassuming nature of paper by constructing objects that convey strength, intent, and durability, but which also require conscious observation and care.

The mathematical precision of the placement of each piece of paper is matched by exquisitely hand-cut edges, notches, and punctures. The work of the artist’s hand is traceable throughout each piece: the process of construction is as systematic as it is mysterious, amplifying our curiosity about how it was engineered, just as one does when looking at the vaulted ceiling of a medieval cathedral or the exactness of a Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala. Curiosity and imagination are interconnected in human experience. Each sculpture encourages one to explore it and invokes a sense of adventure, like an elaborate labyrinth or ornate temple in which we note the scale or the interplay of form and light, but there are always new details to discover.

-Kate Mothes

Alternate view: “You create yourself in ever-changing shapes that rise from the stuff of our days”

“You create yourself in ever-changing shapes that rise from the stuff of our days”, 2022, paper sculpture, 20” x 20” x 2”

Alternate view: “The gate of heaven is everywhere”

“The gate of heaven is everywhere”, 2021, paper sculpture, 25” x 22” x 3”

Alternate view: “I have hymns you haven’t heard”

“I have hymns you haven’t heard”, 2022, paper sculpture, 20” x 20” x 2”

Michael Velliquette Michael Velliquette constructs stunningly intricate works made from colored paper. His choice to work with an everyday material affords him the freedom to think fantastically on a small scale.

By alluding to fortress-like structures, which are built to withstand force and time, Velliquette highlights the materiality and ephemeral quality of the humble, lightweight material.

A working artist for 20 years, Velliquette has participated in over 150 exhibitions in museums and galleries in the US, Europe and Asia. His work is in the permanent collections of the Chazen Museum of Art; the San Antonio Museum of Art; the Art Museum of South Texas; the Racine Art Museum; The Progressive Corporation; The John Michael Kohler Art Center; and The Microsoft Collection. He has participated in residencies and cultural exchange programs including the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence; the SÍM Residency, Reykjavik; the John Michael Kohler Art/Industry program; and EUARCA, Kassel, Germany.

2000 1993

MFA, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI BFA, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Selected Exhibitions 2022 Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2021 Cheongju Craft Biennele, Cheongju-si,

Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea 2020 David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX 2019 Society of Arts + Crafts, Boston, MA 2018 Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA 2017 Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI Mori Arts Center, Tokyo, Japan 2015 University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 2014 David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO 2013 DCKT Contemporary, New York, NY 2012 Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI 2011 Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT 2009 Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY 2007 DCKT Contemporary, New York, NY Selected Collections Chazen Museum of Art Boston Children’s Hospital Art Museum of South Texas Racine Art Museum Museum of Wisconsin Art The Progressive Art Collection Microsoft Art Collection San Antonio Museum of Art Kohler Art Center

Top: “Then the knowing comes: I can open to another life that’s wide & timeless”, 2019, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 2” Bottom” Often when I imagine you your wholeness cascades into many shapes”, 2019, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 2”

Top: “Reaching, these hands would pull you out of the sky as if you had shattered there, dashed yourself in some wild impatience”, 2019, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 2” Bottom “New deliverer - the new age eagerly looks to the path of your coming”, 2019, paper sculpture, 12” x 12” x 2”

“Shadow Blossom”, 2013, paper acrylic, ink, 36” x 24”

“Fortress”, 2013, Paper, acrylic, ink, 24” x 36” Back cover: “Serpent”, 2014, paper, acrylic, 28” x 22” x 2.5”

Duane Reed Gallery 4729 McPherson Ave. St. Louis, MO 63108

314.361.4100 www.duanereedgallery.com info@duanereedgallery.com