Introduced to art by Rika Burnham at the Met, Nicholé Velásquez continued developing his visual art as a Jocelyn Benzakin fellow at the International Center for Photography in 2005. 2018 he was laureate of Le Prix Industries et Cultures / Art Faber – awarded for his decades long depictions of just-in-time industrial processes. Alongside his art, Nicholé has worked as curatorial assistant at the Bumiller Collection from 2017 to 2020 and developed the first curatorial fellowship at Otte1 in 2023. At Otte1 he curated intergenerational dialogues with a focus on feminist programming, for example, inviting Astrid Proll to share her journey in art after incarceration in 1970s West Germany.

These days, subversion from above appears to be a bigger threat than revolution from below. In contrast to revolution, subversion takes effect noiselessly. It undermines existing structures and replaces them with new values. The term values is, of course, applied quite non-prejudicially here. Perhaps the most subversive element of our times consists of the sort of money which acts in obscurity, its effects remaining invisible, yet its power holds a far bigger sway over our destinies than any government ever could. Important financial locations are traditionally marked by high-rising banking towers. They are the aesthetic crystallisation of the power of money as the quintessential “value form” (Karl Marx).