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 contemporary futurist mythology, personal narrative, and a cross-disciplinary ambition that has taken him from fine art museums to international fashion weeks. His practice is among the most original and formally adventurous in contemporary Indigenous art, extending the boundaries of what Pueblo ceramics can be and do without ever severing its connection to the tradition that made it possible. The pottery tradition of Cochiti Pueblo is distinguished by its figurative ware - ceramic figures depicting animals, people, and supernatural beings in the Pueblo's characteristic black-and-white palette - and Ortiz has extended that tradition into genuinely new territory. His ongoing multimedia project "Revolt 1680/2180" imagines a science fiction sequel to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, in which Cochiti warriors travel forward in time to 2180 to face new threats to Indigenous sovereignty. The project has been realized across ceramics, textile, performance, video, and installation, creating a world of warrior figures and space travelers decorated in bold Cochiti geometric motifs that is as visually compelling as any contemporary fantasy universe. The fashion dimension of Ortiz's practice reflects his belief that Indigenous visual culture belongs not only in museums and galleries but in the world - on bodies, in motion, at the center of contemporary life. He has collaborated with international fashion houses and designers, bringing Cochiti aesthetics into contexts that have never engaged with Indigenous art in this way. Ortiz has shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, been the subject of a feature-length documentary, and had his work acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and major private collections worldwide. He is considered one of the most innovative Indigenous artists of his generation.