– Pepe Villegas
A self-taught artist, Pepe Villegas’ creative journey has always embodied a search, a sublime process of unveiling beauty in the unconventional. In 1993 he relocated the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan where he shared a studio and launched his career as an artist. He became part of an alternative creative community vibrating outside the gallery and museum system, in the fashion and music subcultures, and the subways and the streets of New York. His multimedia work has resulted in collaborations, exhibitions, and happenings around the world. From doing murals for Heineken and Verizon, to designing artwork for the perfumers at Symrise, his work has been featured in a variety of venues, and exhibited extensively in prestigious galleries & museums around the world, such as the El Museo de las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, The Parrish Museum in Southampton; the Gagosian Gallery, and the Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, which represented him. Charles Cowles, whose personal collection features some of Villegas’ work, donated more than 100 iconic works to the new Perez Art Museum Miami.Pepe Villegas’ work has been featured in leading publications such as The New Yorker, Artforum, NY Arts, Time Out New York, Bloomberg.com, Zink Magazine and London’s The Artist Magazine, amongst many others.
Pepe is the founder of ARTKTR, a wearable art collaborative and experimental platform based in Miami.
