ABOUT VIRGIL ORTIZ
Tradition Unbound
Virgil Ortiz is one of today’s most visionary artists. His work spans media and boundaries, challenging societal expectations and breaking taboos as it unleashes new worlds.
Raised in a creative household shaped by storytelling and mining clay from the earth, Ortiz remains deeply influenced by his grandmother, Laurencita Herrera, and his mother, Seferina Ortiz, renowned Cochiti Pueblo potters. “I didn’t even know it was art that was being produced while I was growing up,” Ortiz reflects. “Clay is the core of all my creations.”
Internationally acclaimed, Ortiz’s work is held in museum collections worldwide, including the Smithsonian Institution, Denver Art Museum, Autry Museum of the American West, Lowe Art Museum, Design Museum Den Bosch, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, and Triennale Milano. His recent exhibition, Continuum: Blindfall, First Strike, at Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe, marked a powerful new chapter in Ortiz’s expansive Revolt 1680/2180 project—reimagining the Pueblo Revolt through clay and imagery, and bridging ancestral memory with bold, speculative futures. In 2027, his story will reach audiences nationwide with The ReVOlution of Virgil Ortiz, a one-hour documentary produced by New Mexico PBS and presented by Vision Maker Media.
Where Culture Collides with Imagination
Ortiz fuses Pueblo culture with sci-fi, fantasy, and apocalyptic themes, building immersive worlds through clay, fashion, multimedia art, and AI. At the center of the saga is a cast of time-traveling warriors: the Blind Archers, Venutian Soldiers, Recon Watchmen, and Runners & Gliders. From a dystopian future 500 years after the Revolt, they return across time to recover songs, ceremonies, designs, and cultural knowledge, and carry them forward.
The Revolt 1680/2180 saga premiered at the Denver Art Museum in 2015 and expanded with Revolution: Rise Against the Invasion at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 2018. Since then, Ortiz has unveiled new chapters at museums across the country: Runners & Gliders at History Colorado in Denver, Sirens & Sikas at the Autry Museum of the American West, Slipstream at the Lowe Art Museum in Coral Gables, and I.A.M.: Indigenous Ancestral Memory at the Hickory Museum of Art in North Carolina. Today, the story lives on through busts, sculptures, photography, video, cinematic projections, and live actors portraying its characters, with a feature film and graphic novels in development.
THE LATEST CHAPTER
QUIVER: Vision Beyond Fear
Webster Collection and W Department, Santa Fe · November 20, 2026 – February 28, 2027
Ortiz carries Pueblo design past the pedestal and into high fashion. A celebrated collaboration with Donna Karan turned his graphic painting into boldly patterned textiles, and his own lines have followed: sharp laser-cut leather jackets and silk scarves that echo the sinuous contours and motifs of Pueblo pottery. Captivating, provocative, and edgy, his collections run from Revolt Rising to his latest, Vortex. His signature turkey-track X marks every piece, a reminder to keep everyone guessing about his next move.
His mid-career monograph,
Virgil Ortiz: ReVOlution, is available in the VO Shop.
At the heart of it all is a mission: igniting global recognition that Pueblo communities are vibrant, resilient, and thriving. Through his art, Ortiz shares the pivotal history of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt on a global stage, inspiring a new generation to see art as rebellion, resistance, and survival.
“Art is as essential as our Pueblo language and way of life. It connects generations, advancing us into the future through storytelling and technology—by sparking imagination, wonder, and empowerment.”
— Virgil Ortiz
In The Press
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