Kukuli Velarde, a Peruvian-born Philadelphia artist, is known primarily for her feminist ceramic reinterpretations of pre-Columbian sculptures.

The Cupid is numbered and signed by Velarde.

The recipient of a Pew Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, she had her first Philadelphia solo show of paintings, at Taller Puertorriqueno.

The Cupids are an edition of three sets of thirty pieces, ninety in total. They are part of the installation Pure Lust/Pure Love that Velarde presented in the International Biennial of Lima, Perú in 1999. They are a commentary about women's rights to their sexuality as an inherent part of their being. The Cupids have inscribed in their chests catcalls to men, reversing the patriarchal trend of submitting women to male gaze and scrutiny. It comes from the artist's personal experience with a Costa Rican man at her art school in Mexico. Velarde once purposely delivered a catcall to him (an activity he often engaged in, pestering all of the women in the school). Incapable of empathizing with women, and the aggressiveness of the catcall dynamic, the man got angrier every time Velarde pointed out his anatomy with "admiration". It was an interesting exercise for Velarde. The Cupids are a response to the aggression with humor, and without doubt or fear to bring the issue to the table.

Kukuli has had numerous solo exhibitions including:

2018-19 THE COMPLICIT EYE. Taller Puertorriqueno. Philadelphia. PA
2016 Kukuli Velarde- PLUNDER ME, BABY. Peters Project Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2015 KUKULI VELARDE. Art Lima solo show (Cavin-Morris Gallery) Lima, Peru.
2013 PLUNDER ME, BABY. Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, KS.
2012 PATRIMONIO. Germán Kru?ger Espantoso Gallery, ICPNA. Lima, Perú.
KUKULI VELARDE. Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College at Old Westbury. NY.

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