Throughout his career Pedro Vélez has combined verbal and visual practices using a wide range of mediums including painting, photography, large-scale collages, collaborations, printed ephemera, and web-based works. Journalism, political corruption, coercion and morality have been recurring themes in his work. In recent years his new body of paintings encapsulate how our intimacy is disrupted, occupied, and influenced by our political and digital selves, and by the wild landscape of social media alerts and relentless news cycles.

In 2024 Vélez received a NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures) Fund for the Arts grant, and in 2021 the artist won a research grant and residency award from the Kone Foundation / Saari Residency in Finland. In 2019 he was included in the historical survey Net Art Anthology, curated by Michael Connor and Aria Dean, at Rhizome. In 2014 he participated in the Whitney Biennial.

Recent exhibitions include:

Persistence/Persistencia: The Lion’s Roar in the Puerto Rican Arts, curated by Jorge Félix, at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, Chicago;
“Arrivals and Departures: Migratory experience in Contemporary Puerto Rican art”, curated by Laura Bravo, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia; Sense & Sensibility, curated by Linda Dorman and Tom Torluemke at South Shore Arts in Indiana; “Texas Collects: Carter/Wynne Collection”, Site 131, Dallas; “This is America”, curated by Fatima Laster, 5Points, Milwaukee; “Sun Drenched Disasters”, curated by Dianne Brás Feliciano and Timo Tuhkanen, at Myymala2, Helsinki; Future Fair NYC with Season Gallery; “New Rican Identities of Disaster Capitalism” (performative lecture) at PRSA 13th Conference, Rutgers University; “ Hurricanes, Political Earthquakes, Quiet Protests, Neurotic Tweets” (solo) at Liliana Bloch in Dallas; “Beyond the Canvas”, curated by Monica Ramirez-Montagut and Warren James, at the Newcomb Museum, NOLA; “Affirmations: Social Media, Love and Healing in the Age of María" (solo) curated by Anna Astor, Cuadrado Gris, Barrio Obrero, PR.

His work has been discussed in Artforum, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Frieze, Pelican Bomb, Daily Serving, and Heather Warren Crow’s book Girlhood and the Plastic Image among many others. For 12 years Vélez worked as a critic for Artnet covering the scenes in Puerto Rico and the Midwest. His writing has been published in Newcity Chicago, New Art Examiner, Art F City, and Arte al Día.