Anna Ortiz

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. Inspired by the archeology of Mesoamerican figures and the landscape of Mexico, Ortiz’s work serves as a reflection on her Mexican-American identity. Growing up with one foot in the U.S. and the other in Mexico, Ortiz always felt distanced from both of her nationalities. Similarly, the beings in her 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 and 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. The figures in this series act as guides or trail markers on a journey through a surreal landscape recalling the borderlands between Mexico and the US. The spirits residing in these statues and plants are in a state of existence between life and death, a slow-motion awareness that is hard to define. They guide and warn the visitor while also encouraging them to continue. Taken as a whole, her 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, Ortiz invites viewers to consider the realities we create for ourselves and the possibilities that lie ahead.

Courtesy of Dinner Gallery