Virgil Ortiz

Virgil Ortiz (born 1969) is a Cochiti Pueblo ceramicist, fashion designer, and performance artist whose work fuses the distinctive black-and-white pottery tradition of Cochiti Pueblo with futurist mythology and personal narrative. His ongoing multimedia project "Revolt 1680/2180" imagines a science fiction sequel to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 — in which Pueblo warriors travel to the year 2180 to face new threats to their sovereignty — realized across ceramics, textile, performance, and video. His figurative vessels, decorated with warriors, space travelers, and supernatural beings in bold Cochiti geometric motifs, have earned him international recognition in both the fine arts world and the fashion industry. Ortiz has shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, collaborated with international fashion houses, and been the subject of a feature-length documentary. His work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and major private collections worldwide.