A reception for the dual opening the DANZA DE LOS FANTASTICOS Y EL SUPER MIX exhibit of the art of Cruz Ortiz and Olivia Ortiz’s COSMIC LINES: From There to Here is set for Friday, March 1, at 6 p.m. at the Laredo Center for the Arts.
The Cruz Ortiz exhibit is set in the main gallery of the Center, while Olivia’s hangs in the mezzanine.
Cruz Ortiz
Cruz Ortiz uses print, performance and film to address issues related to his experiences growing up in the bicultural landscape of South Texas.
Grounded in the history of art, contemporary art practices, and social-political culture movements, his unique language fuses with symbols of contemporary pop culture such as taco trucks, tire shop signage, and an alter ego named SPAZTEK. He engages the public with interactive works such as wheat pasta, communal art events, guerrilla AM radio broadcasts, and ephemeral street sculptures.
He has had solo exhibitions at Artpace in San Antonio; the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston; and the University of Texas-Austin.
He has been invited to numerous international exhibitions and institution such as the Lourvre; EV-A in Limerick, Ireland; the traveling exhibiton Phantom Sightings with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the San Juan Triennial in San Juan Puerto Rico.
“el corrido de cuando i couldnt get a signal in eagle pass”
oil on canvas
26″ x 32″
Olivia Ortiz
Artist, humanitarian, and educator Olivia Ortiz has dedicated herself to the development and enrichment of her community. Heavily influenced by the community leadership of her grandmother and growing up in San Antonio, Olivia began her professional career as an educator, teaching English and Special Education.
During her nine years in the classroom, she began to see the needs not only of her students, but of the larger San Antonio community. Social justice, accurate representation and speaking authentically to the Latinx community became the driving forces behind her work. In 2009, she met fellow teacher Cruz Ortiz. They married in 2012, beginning what has become a decade of collaboration.
The exhibits close with a reception on Friday, May 3, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Writings by both Cruz and Olivia follow here as sidebars.
SIDEBAR I
DANZA DE LOS FANTASTICOS Y EL SUPER MIX
By Cruz Ortiz at the Laredo Center for the Arts
At times the world is filled with darkness. Oftentimes it is difficult to see the love and beauty that fills the gaps between us.
“To know love for what it actually is: a perpetual discovery, an immersion in the waters of reality, and an unending re-creation.”
– Octavio Paz
It’s the gap that interests me the most – NEPANTLA TIME – not as the line between masses but the gap as a cosmic center. Rejecting la frontera as a peripheral existence and announcing fronterizmo as a series of mega-epicenters, como fluid filled pulsating muddy earthen vertebrae sprouting with plantas and river animalitos.
The love and beauty part is what I want to paint – and tambien the tristeza, all at the same time. Depicting the gente of our times and of the people who have defended the joys of this tierra.
I often think about being in that electronic cumbia danza sonido beats, just coasting, as if my body and mind need to heal a little bit. And sometimes a little solito – pero sometimes drifting with my partner while carefully trying not to step on her tacones.
To shift the focus on the beauty of our reality is vital for sustaining our souls. The burning sun and cold rain, the swaying river trees, the stars that shine dimly as the night darkens, beautiful gente smiling – all big with no fear or shame.
How we just want to cook the comida with the people in our lives – and do our best to remember her recipes. Cuando we get all dressed up for the gala or that pulga dance floor. How she tells me ‘make me laugh’ and then I try hard to make it happen in the most natural way. How the pinche cat sits on the buffet table looking outside the window at all the other pinche cats outside playing. How I remember stories from elders of others before us – that believed in the old ways of understanding beauty and nature.
I want to paint the things as if they are offerings – stories – songs of a time, of our time witnessing the re-birth of our collective realization – where healing turns into paint on canvas, como un collectiva de mariposas – always in constant motion and offering beauty.
SIDEBAR II
COSMIC LINES: From There to Here
By Olivia Ortiz at the Laredo Center for the Arts
Olivia Ortiz’s exhibition unveils a compelling narrative through large-scale abstract anatomical landscapes on canvas and expansive works on paper. These humanistic forms intricately explore the physical metamorphoses of the female body within the framework of the universal experience.
Her large-scale paintings allow the viewer to step into her journey while experiencing their own. The work demands a large canvas as a reminder to ourselves to take space.
All women traverse from there to here, crossing arbitrary lines manufactured by the patriarchy. The journey from there to here is an evolution of themselves whether it is physical, intellectual, or emotional.
Through Ortiz’s lens, she questions whether lines, limits, and borders would even exist if it weren’t for the ruling class forcing their existence. Ortiz employs varied gestural brush strokes on textured canvases, utilizing a bold and striking skin color palette that draws the audience into the narrative of the survivor’s journey.
Her meticulous process, involving charcoal and conte’ on small papers, seamlessly transforms stoic messages into a lyrical dance on canvas. Each shape embodies a complete kinesthetic movement, and each line, rhythmically marked with scores of brushstrokes, becomes a ritualistic warrior notation collecting memories and providing glimpses of internal joys and conflicts.
The collection evokes a meditative state, inviting viewers into a healing experience.
Ortiz’s paintings serve as profound documents or letters, allowing us to read and understand her nuanced processing of the surrounding world. The angles and shapes within the artwork appear to jut out, sharing a poignant story with the observer. Through this resilient universe of visual storytelling, Ortiz crafts a captivating exhibition that delves into the profound depths of personal and collective resilience.
