Pueblo history comes to life in Virgil Ortiz’s sci-fi-influenced pottery.
For the past 20 years, Virgil Ortiz has been using ceramics to keep alive the memory of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680—an uprising against Spanish colonizers by the Indigenous people of what is now New Mexico—in an epic project called Revolt 1680/2180. Ortiz comes from a family of storied Cochiti Pueblo potters and learned the craft from his grandmother, Laurencita Herrera, and mother, Seferina Ortiz, both widely collected artists working in traditional figurative and vessel forms. Steeped in art from birth, Ortiz has incorporated Cochiti traditions, science fiction narratives, multimedia, and fashion into his vast artistic world. Claire Voon wrote about Ortiz’s visionary work in “The Ceramist and the Superheroes” in the Spring 2023 issue of American Craft.
How do you describe your work or practice in 50 words or less?
My work is based on educating people globally about the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, a historical event that has been swept under the carpet, not taught in schools, and omitted in textbooks. It’s an awakening of the truth and education of Pueblo history. I’m reviving social commentary in my traditional clay works and recording a timeline of past and current events.
Ortiz next to one of his Recon Watchmen sculptures at the home of collector Dan Crane in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
