David Velasco

David Velasco (born October 23, 1978) is an American writer and editor. He was the editor-in-chief of the art magazine ''Artforum'' from 2017 to 2023. He is the editor of ''Modern Dance'', a 2017 series of books on contemporary choreographers published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He has written texts on a number of artists, including Sarah Michelson, Adrian Piper, and David Wojnarowicz. In 2017, he helped photographer and activist Nan Goldin establish the activist group P.A.I.N., chronicled in Laura Poitras's Academy Award–nominated documentary ''All the Beauty and the Bloodshed'' (2022).

Early life

In 2000, Velasco earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Reed College. He would later earn a master's degree from New York University in social theory and humanities, in 2004.

Career

In 2005, Velasco began working at ''Artforum''. He would become the site editor in 2008 and would frequently write features and columns on various artists, artworks, and events. He would also begin a series of books on modern dance published by the Museum of Modern Art starting in 2016.

In November 2017, he became the editor-in-chief of ''Artforum'', succeeding Michelle Kuo. A new era of ''Artforum'' emerged under the leadership of Velasco. In his first issue, featuring a self-portrait by the born HIV-positive artist Kia LaBeija on the cover, Velasco wrote a poignant statement: "The art world is misogynist. Art history is misogynist. Also racist, classist, transphobic, ableist, homophobic. I will not accept this. Intersectional feminism is an ethics near and dear to so many on our staff. Our writers too. This is where we stand. There's so much to be done. Now, we get to work." Art critic Jerry Saltz immediately praised the new direction the magazine had taken, noting, "And just like that, an ''Artforum'' that needed to disappear was gone." The first issue included writing and photographic essays by Molly Nesbit, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado, critic Johanna Fatemen, and artists such as Donald Moffet. Over his tenure, some cover stories included Wolfgang Tillmans, Arthur Jafa, Barbara Hammer, Sam McKinniss, Martine Gutierrez, hannah baer, and the Palestinian Museum.

Artist Nan Goldin published a harrowing text and photographic account of her addiction to the prescription pain-relief drug OxyContin in a 2018 piece in Velasco's first issue. This prompted the founding of P.A.I.N., a campaign to expose the role of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic in America. The campaign coincided with Christopher Glazek's breaking report in ''Esquire'' and, several weeks later, Patrick Radden Keefe's report in ''The New Yorker'' on the Sacklers' "criminal misbranding." Both journalists reported that the drug that led doctors to believe Oxycontin was less addictive than had been reported. Goldin demanded in her essay that the Sacklers donate half of their fortune to drug rehabilitation clinics and programs. Thessaly La Force of the '' New York Times Style Magazine'' wrote of the artist, "It is rare these days to see a lone artist like Goldin — especially one both critically and commercially successful, whose work is in dozens of important museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art — step into the ring as an activist."

In 2019, Hannah Black, Ciarán Finlayson, and Tobi Haslett published an essay in ''Artforum'' titled "The Tear Gas Biennial," decrying Warren Kanders, co-chair of the board of the Whitney Museum, and his "toxic philanthropy." Although Kanders had donated an estimated $10 million to the museum, the source of his fortune comes from Safariland LLC, a company that manufactures riot gear, tear gas and other chemical weapons used by police and the military to impose order by force. Although the Geneva Convention in 1925 outlawed the use of tear gas in all international military conflict, the tear gas fired at peaceful protesters and civilians by the police and military during the George Floyd protests in 2020 as well as on migrants on the US-Mexico border is the same brand of tear gas manufactured by Defense Technology, a subsidy of Safariland. A wave of artists from the Biennial, including Korakrit Arunanondchai, Meriem Bennani, Nicole Eisenman and Nicholas Galanin, demanded immediate removal of their work from the Biennial within hours after the essay was published. After mounting pressure from artists, critics, and gallerists urging the public to boycott the show, Kanders stepped down from his leadership position at the museum. The essay was instrumental in his resignation, and in the museum cutting ties with Kanders' financial endowments that were directly connected to the promotion and use of military weaponry and violence during peaceful social unrest.

On October 26, 2023, he was fired by the magazine's publisher, Penske Media Corporation, after the publication reprinted an open letter, which received 8,000 signatories, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during the Gaza war. The letter was published on October 19, and initially failed to report the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 Israelis and the taking of around 200 people as hostages. The letter originally circulated as a Google document, and also appeared in e-flux and Hyperallergic. Magazine publishers Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza stated that he violated the "standard editorial process" of the magazine with the letter, following a campaign of art collectors and advertisers who objected to the letter, though Velasco has disputed that he broke protocol in subsequent interviews. Velasco told ''The New York Times'' that he had no regrets, and that he was disappointed that ''Artforum'' "bent to outside pressure." A number of musicians, writers, philosophers, and artists, including Laura Poitras, Brian Eno, Barbara Kruger, Judith Butler, Saidiya Hartman, Nicole Eisenman, and Nan Goldin, signed the letter and several publicly called for a boycott of ''Artforum'' in response to Velasco being fired. Poitras wrote to Penske stating that Velasco had “elevated the magazine and institution intellectually, politically, and artistically," and, “ a journalist, it is important for me to stress this is not only about ''Artforum''—this is about free speech, editorial independence, and press freedom.” Zack Hatfield, a senior editor for ''Artforum'', announced he was leaving following the firing of Velasco, which he called "unacceptable," as did Chloe Wyma, Kate Sutton, and several others. Writers Against the War on Gaza formed the same day as an ad hoc organization which published a similar online open letter. According to a conversation between Velasco and the writer Sarah Schulman in April 2025, the boycott is ongoing.

In 2024, Velasco received a Cultural Freedom Award from the Lannan Foundation; prior recipients include Angela Y. Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mike Davis, and Mohammed El Kurd.

Personal life

In a 2018 interview with SSENSE, Velasco stated that he was a vegetarian. He relayed a story when he was disappointed there was not "a vegetarian option" and added that he was "shocked because I assumed that most people in the art world would be vegetarians."

In an oral history interview, in June 2020, he noted that he was married to artist Ryan McNamara and recently, for Document Journal in 2024, said that the poet and Changes Press founder, Bennet Bergman, was his current boyfriend.

References

External links

Oral history interview with David Velasco
June 30, 2020, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

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1978 births
Living people
American editors
American magazine editors
New York University alumni
Reed College alumni
American gay writers