The New York Artist Shop, 1124 New York Ave., St. Cloud, will host an artist reception Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. featuring the artist of the month.

Tony Velez is a local Kissimmee artist, however, his artistic training and creative expression go back over his lifetime to his beginnings in New England, according to an artists shop press release.

Born and raised in Waterbury, Conn., Velez showed an interest in art and music at an early age, ultimately earning a bachelor of fine arts degree in studio art and art history at the University of Connecticut.

After graduation, Velez moved to Boston in 1989, where his post-college years were spent playing drums in several Boston bands and exhibiting his art in galleries throughout the greater Boston area, while he honed his art skills and continued courses in sculpture and drawing at Massachusetts College of Art.

Over the years, Velez has developed a variety of styles ranging from geometric, modern, cubist to expressionistic, always emphasizing bright, bold colors and visually harmonic, well-balanced composition.

His subject matter is most often based on the human figure, lyrically depicted and drawing upon musical inspiration. His strongest influences are Pablo Picasso and Louis Armstrong – passionate innovators who through the power of their imaginations transformed the worlds of art and music forever.

Velez again picked up his paintbrushes and began painting in 2005, putting to canvas the heady jazz-influenced inspiration he acquired from several visits to that incubator of artistic expression, New Orleans, and is fast becoming a fixture of the Central Florida art scene, exhibiting in several of the area’s art strolls and featured gallery exhibits.  

His work has been exhibited throughout Central Florida including the Hispanic Artists Exhibit at the Osceola Center for the Arts in September 2009, then again in 2010.  His first featured show was at the New York Artists Shop in St. Cloud in June 2011.  

Tony Velez has exhibited several times in 2012 during Baldwin Park and Thornton Park’s art strolls, and his work was selected for the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA), first Thursday art events in March, April, and July.

Other upcoming exhibits include a fundraiser event for the OMA in downtown Orlando Sept. 29 for which he was selected as a showcase artist, and a raw artists art event Oct. 11 in downtown Orlando at the Abbey.  

As an added treat there will be live music performed by Rambler Ave.

Octobers featured artist Savannah Stone also will be at the shop painting in front along with Velez.

The New York Artists Shop hosts a free-featured artist reception on the third Friday of every month. Light refreshments will be served.

Portfolio: www.velezarts.carbonmade.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/VelezArts