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Anna Ortiz is a Mexican-American painter living in Brooklyn. Growing up in Worcester Massachusetts, Ortiz spent much of her childhood visiting her family in Guadalajara Mexico. There she studied painting with her grandfather Alfonso who was a professional portrait painter. Her love for painting and travel lead her to study in Paris at the Ecole du Louvre while in her undergraduate studies at Tufts and the Museum School. Ortiz continued her education at Tyler, receiving her MFA in painting in Philadelphia and Rome. Ortiz moved to New York in 2006 and has never stopped traveling. She has exhibited at Proto Gomez,
Transmitter Gallery, TSA and My Pet Ram.
Inspired by, the archeology of Mesoamerican figures and the landscape of Mexico, my
work serves as a reflection on my Mexican-American identity. Growing up with one foot
in the U.S. and the other in Mexico, I’ve always felt distanced from both of my
nationalities. Similarly the beings in my paintings embrace their ambiguities. Rooted in
statuary and botanicals, these figures come to life in dream-like landscapes where they
are neither dead nor alive. Their narrative nature references ancient Aztec and Mayan
mythology while reflecting back on current and personal events. Out of the ruins of their
previous existence, these new creatures inhabit a borderland between memory and
imagination. Dualities define them; they give them shape. Weaving together invented
spaces with references to actual places, the paintings take both a familiar tone and a
sense of the uncanny. Taken as a whole, my paintings offer a purview into an invented
world existing just slightly out of the realm of possibility. By playing with spatial
compression and a filtered palette, I invite viewers to consider the realities we create for
ourselves and the possibilities that lie ahead.
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