For Anna OrtizThe border areas are a rich source for the creepy. The Mexican-American artist (previously) was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, but often visited her family in Guadalajara. There she was immersed in her ancestral landscape and she introduced in the history of her family as artists – her grandfather painted portraits, while her aunt was a professional sculptor.
These forming experiences offered a contrast with her life in the northeast and the dichotome relationship between the two continues to influence her thinking and practice today.
For her upcoming solo exhibition on Mindy Solomon GalleryOrtiz evokes a surrealistic border area that suspends time. Flooded in saturated color palettes of pink, blue and green, into the paintings Prophecy here and disappeared Reference AZTEC History and how their influence continues to shape the landscape.
In the diptych ‘Al otro Lado de Texcoco’, for example, a shiny lake peeping through dense clusters of cacti. Nestled at the foot of the La Malinche volcano, the body of water greeted the Aztecs when they moved to what is now known as Mexico City. When the Spaniards arrived, they played the lake in a failed attempt to farm the country.
Ortiz tells Colossal that she often paints couples as a way not to consider unfulfilled destination and paths. Twin Agaves appears in “Pareja”, while “Tula” shows a few totemic sculptures that seem to be on guard. Flat butterflies adorn their boxes, a reference to the images found in the capital of the ancestors of the Aztecs, the Tolteken. The artist records in the same way by reflections, because a majestic Jaguar is reflected on the aquatic foreground of different paintings.
World construction and offering an access point to old prophecies is the key to this oeuvre. Interested in the ways in which civilization and the landscape work on each other and shape each other, Ortiz shares that “loss is a central theme … I was once very close to my Mexican heritage, and I lost it. I grow up Spanish, but because of the family, I lost it fluently.”
The paintings of Ortiz honor both the ancient peoples and cultures that once occupied the country and present an alternative universe in which their myths and prophecies had different results. Lively and creepy, the works portray the “life we couldn’t live, but (that) happened without us,” she adds.
Prophecy here and disappeared can be seen from 5 April to 10 May in Miami. Find more of Ortiz Op Her website And Instagram.
