DIANA GIL VÉLEZ is a conceptual multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections of human behavior, collective memory, trauma, and transformation. Drawing from historical events and their contemporary echoes, she creates visual parables that examine the cyclical nature of violence and oppression while illuminating humanity’s capacity for healing.
Vélez’s artistic practice is deeply informed by historical inquiry and her clinical background as a practicing psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, and art therapist. Working across multiple media and often incorporating everyday materials, she investigates how individual and collective trauma reverberate through families, cultures, and ecosystems long after conflict has ended. Her work extends psychological inquiry into broader social and environmental contexts, inviting viewers to consider accountability, compassion, and collective transformation.
Born and raised in Washington Heights, New York, to Dominican immigrant parents who left the Dominican Republic in 1967 after decades under the Trujillo dictatorship, Vélez explores themes of migration, belonging, and the evolving nature of identity. She studied Fine Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology, earned a B.A. in English and Human Rights from Barnard College of Columbia University, and completed graduate studies in Art Therapy and Counseling at The College of New Rochelle Graduate School.
