Artist Profile
Anna Ortiz
Anna Ortiz is a Mexican-American painter living in Brooklyn. Growing up in Worcester Massachusetts, Ortiz spent much of her childhood visiting her family in Guadalajara Mexico. There she studied painting with her grandfather Alfonso who was a professional portrait painter. Her love for painting and travel led her to study in Paris at the Ecole du Louvre while in her undergraduate studies at Tufts and the Museum School. Ortiz continued her education at Tyler, receiving her MFA in painting in Philadelphia and Rome. Ortiz moved to New York in 2006 and has never stopped traveling. She has exhibited at Proto Gomez, Selenas Mountain, Front Room Gallery and My Pet Ram.
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 Distorted Realities, Front Room Gallery NY
2022 Covid Haus, Mother-in -Laws Haus NY
2022 Hidden Sublime, Selenas Mountain NY
2022 The Wood for the Trees, Hawk and Hive NY
2021 The Big Show, My Pet Ram NY
2021 Porous Modes, Field Projects NY
2021 Soft Elegy, The Royal NY
2020 Al Pie de los Magueyales Swirbul Gallery, Adelphi University
2020 NY Fresh Paint Art of Our Century NY
2019 Los Dioses de los Pochos (Solo) Proto Gomez NY
2019 Smudge Partners and Son PA
2019 The Strangeness of Structure String Room Gallery NY
2019 Ruin The Royal Society of Art NY
2019 The Drawing is the Moveable Feast Proto Gomez NY
2019 Courtesy Of Transmitter Gallery NY
2019 Flat File Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery NY
2018 An Animal Unto Itself Transmitter Gallery NY
2018 Small/Mighty La Bodega Gallery NY
2018 The Strangeness of Structure Adelphi University NY
2018 Introductions Trestle Gallery NY
2017 Epsalante (Solo) Hunter Gallery RI
2017 High Rock Tower Ess Ef Eff NY
2017 Underdonk Selects Underdonk NY
2016 Shaky Ground Lesley Heller Workspace NY
2016 Brooklyn Comes to Westport Deedee Shattuck Gallery MA
2016 Nomenclature Centotto NY
2015 Underdonk Selects Underdonk NY
2015 Last Grexit to Brooklyn Centotto NY
2015 Passing Left The Buggy Factory Dorado Project NY
2015 Vision Concepto Hudson NY
2015 Fractured Atlas Storefront Gallery NY
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS, PUBLICATIONS
2022 I Like Your Work Summer Exhibition Catalogue
2022 Byrdcliffe Residency, NY
2020 Make Magazine Issue 11
2019 Obras Residency Estremoz, Portugal
2015 Obras Residency Renkum, The Netherlands
2012 Old School House Residency Hrisey, Iceland
2011 Obras Residency Renkum, The Netherlands
2010 Vermont Studio Center Fellowship and Residency, VT
2003 Future Faculty Fellowship Award Temple University, PA
EDUCATION
2005 MFA Painting Tyler School of Art/Temple University PA
2002 BA Art History Tufts University, Boston MA/BFA Painting SMFA Boston
Artist Statement
Inspired by the archeology of Mesoamerican figures and the landscape of Mexico, my work serves as a reflection on my Mexican-American identity. Growing up with one foot in the U.S. and the other in Mexico, I’ve always felt distanced from both of my nationalities. Similarly, the beings in my paintings embrace their ambiguities. Rooted in statuary and botanicals, these figures come to life in dream-like landscapes where they are neither dead nor alive. Their narrative nature references ancient Aztec and Mayan mythology while reflecting back on current and personal events. Out of the ruins of their previous existence, these new creatures inhabit a borderland between memory and imagination. Dualities define them, give them shape. Weaving together invented spaces with references to actual places, the paintings take both a familiar tone and a sense of the uncanny. The figures in this series act as guides or trail markers on a journey through a surreal landscape recalling the borderlands between Mexico and the US. The spirits residing in these statues and plants are in a state of existence between life and death, a slow motion awareness that is hard to define. They guide and warn the visitor while also encouraging them to continue. Taken as a whole, my paintings offer a purview into an invented world existing just slightly out of the realm of possibility. By playing with spatial compression and a filtered palette, I invite viewers to consider the realities we create for ourselves and the possibilities that lie ahead.