Joe Velez is a Jersey City-based figurative painter. He is self-taught but considers museums, art books, and his own obsessive nature to be his greatest teachers. Working primarily in oil, his paintings draw on the drama of classical art and the expressiveness of 20th-century figurative art. His images are also shaped by cinema, photography, and the complexities of human behavior. Alongside his studio work, Velez teaches painting, drawing, and photography. He lives in Jersey City with his cat Egon, named, of course, after Egon Schiele.