Cruz Ortiz

Nopal Boy, 2015

Letterpress woodcut on paper

24 x 18 in (60.96 x 45.72 cm)

Paper size: 24 x 18 in (60.96 x 45.72 cm)

Edition #1

From Artpace

$150

As part of his fall 2015 Window Works exhibition Snake Hawk Press Pop-Up at Artpace, Cruz Ortiz created the limited-edition letterpress woodcut print 'Nopal Boy,' which features a character with the wide-eyed, wide-mouthed motif common to his oeuvre. Ortiz, a San Antonio-based artist, has been printmaking for 13 years. He uses print and other forms of media to embrace issues relating to Chicano culture. Replacing classical icons with symbols of contemporary pop culture, and an alter ego named Spaztek, Ortiz’s work maintains a tense relationship with consumerism. One is never sure whether he is selling an idea, a product, or a revolution. Ortiz’s unconventional, politically charged works use guerrilla tactics to engage the public. At times distributing his prints like leaflets on the street, Ortiz defies institutionalized art practices, instead employing grassroots strategies to target (and make his work accessible to) the general populous.

About the artist

Cruz Ortiz

b. 1972

Cruz Ortiz is an American Contemporary Artist who uses multiple mediums examining historical social political narratives through bold graphic screen prints, figurative abstract portraiture and dream-like landscapes. Ortiz has committed himself to creatively collaborating with cultural arts organizations and social justice organizations for most of his career. He was also a public high school instructor for 15 years, working with diverse urban students. Cruz Ortiz has had solo exhibitions at: ARTPACE in San Antonio, Texas; the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, Texas; the University of Texas in Austin; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara, California. He has been invited to participate in many major international exhibitions and institutions such as: the Louvre in Paris, France; EV-A in Limerick, Ireland; the traveling exhibition Phantom Sightings with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; the San Juan Triennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and at The Blue Coat Museum, in Liverpool, England. His work is in the permanent collections of Ruby City, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the University of Texas at San Antonio Library Special Collections, the Arizona State University Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.