Virgil Ortiz
March 1, 2025 - August 31, 2025
Entrance, Shuford & Coe Galleries
Opening Celebration
Saturday, March 1 | 7 PM
Ortiz adds the finishing strokes to Po’pay, honoring ancestral memory through art.
About the Artist
One of the most revolutionary potters of his time, Virgil Ortiz’s works have been exhibited in museum collections worldwide, including the Design Museum Den Bosch, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Triennale Milano, Smithsonian Institution, Denver Art Museum, Lowe Art Museum in Miami, and the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. His latest exhibition, I AM: Indigenous Ancestral Memory at Hickory Museum of Art, is a testament to his global influence and visionary artistry.
Ortiz, the youngest of six children, grew up in a creative environment in which storytelling, collecting clay, gathering wild plants, and producing figurative pottery was part of everyday life. His grandmother Laurencita Herrera and his mother, Seferina Ortiz, were both renowned Pueblo potters and part of an ongoing matrilineal heritage. “I didn’t even know it was art that was being produced while I was growing up,” he remembers. Ortiz keeps Cochiti pottery traditions alive but transforms them into a contemporary vision that embraces his Pueblo history and culture and merges it with apocalyptic themes, science fiction, and his own storytelling.
Ortiz describes Tahu:
Tahu is purposely blinded by the oppressors for her combat prowess. She recruits a ‘spirit army’ and relentlessly battles the enemy [the colonial oppressors]. Tahu is a Pueblo superhero. Her example leads young people to seek the truth and defeat their fear. Tahu is inspired by and honors Pueblo women, including my late mother. Women keep the stories of our people, our traditions, and ceremonies alive. Our mothers teach us to face adversity with a positive outlook. We have endured because we face our fears, both real and imagined.
About the Exhibition
Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz continues his REVOLT 1680/2180 saga at Hickory Museum of Art with a brand new chapter. The artist draws inspiration from the most successful Indigenous uprising against a colonizing power in North American History, the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Ortiz keeps Cochiti pottery traditions alive but transforms them into a contemporary vision that embraces his Pueblo history and culture and merges it with apocalyptic themes, science fiction, and his own storytelling.
Virgil Ortiz brings his narrative to life at HMA through immersive projection and sound, augmented reality, traditional Cochiti pottery, monumental contemporary pottery, and surprises being debuted at our Museum. This exhibition encourages repeat visitation as you engage with the story and meet the rebellion’s protagonists.
Ortiz has developed 19 groups of characters that represent the 19 Pueblos that still remain. HMA’s storyline highlights Tahu, leader of the Blind Archers. The beautiful, evocative Tahu reflects the strength, power, and resilience of the Pueblo women.
