About Antonio Velasco

Antonio Velasco, AKA Marco González, is a Los Angeles– based photographer, art curator, and communications executive whose creative journey bridges more than two decades of storytelling through both media and visual art. After a successful 25-year career in public relations and strategic communications, Antonio has turned his focus toward the artistic passions that have long shaped his personal and creative identity.

His interest in art began early. While still in high school, he spent much of his time sketching fashion illustrations and exploring art. As a senior, he enrolled in advanced college- level commercial art courses during the summer, deepening his understanding of visual composition and design. During his college formative period, he also developed an admiration for the bold visual experimentation of the Cubist movement, as well as the postmodern commercial art aesthetic popularized by Andy Warhol, whose fusion of pop culture, graphic repetition, and commercial imagery left a lasting impression on his developing visual sensibilities.

During his freshman and sophomore years in college, Antonio discovered photography through black-and- white darkroom courses. Photography quickly became a personal refuge, a form of creative escapism that allowed him to explore emotion, light, and texture through a lens. Over time, his artistic voice began to emerge more clearly through the quiet poetry of floral imagery, while also drawing inspiration from the vibrant urban street art scene and collage art movements of the 1980s, where layered imagery, bold contrasts, and graphic experimentation reshaped contemporary visual culture.

Inspired by his mother’s love of gardening and flowers, he developed a deep appreciation for botanical forms and their symbolism. His passion for international travel further expanded this exploration, as he began photographing flowers and natural textures encountered across different cultures and landscapes, gradually building the foundation for what would become his signature visual language.

Antonio’s relationship with art also extends to collecting and curation. His journey as a collector began in 1999 with the purchase of his first two works by artist Steven Jansen. Since then, he has assembled a diverse international collection featuring original works from artists in Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Africa, and Japan.

In 2020, at the onset of the global pandemic, Gonzalez began informally and quietly curating and introducing contemporary works from Mexican artists to friends and art enthusiasts in Los Angeles, marking his first steps into art curation.

Today, through his creative digital platform Casa Velasco Arte, he brings his own artistic vision to life through experimental photographic collages created using laser black ink, transparent film layers, and matte color floral photography. The resulting works evoke a dreamlike visual world where petals blur, shadows seduce, and beauty feels almost forbidden.