Join the Brown University Library, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and the RISD Ceramics Department for an artist’s talk with Virgil Ortiz, the award-winning Pueblo artist whose work combines innovative pottery, art, décor, fashion, video, and film, on Thursday, October 16 at 6 p.m. at the John Hay Library (321).

Free and open to the public. In-person event.

Virgil Ortiz

Virgil Ortiz (born 1969) is a Pueblo artist, known for his pottery and fashion design from Cochiti Pueblo, New Mexico. Although Ortiz has projects in varying mediums, Ortiz is first and foremost a potter. Ortiz says, “Clay is the core of all my creations. My work centers on preserving traditional Cochiti culture and art forms. It’s important to recognize that Pueblo communities are very much alive and have a level of vitality that speaks to generations of strength, persistence, brilliance, and thriving energy.” Ortiz makes a variety of pottery, including traditional Cochiti figurative pottery, experimental figurative pottery, traditional pottery vessels.

Clay Revolution | Pueblo Revolt 1680/2180

In this artist’s talk, 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. Historic events like the 1680 Pueblo Revolt may not immediately spring to mind when you think of science fiction, but blending the two have occupied Ortiz for nearly two decades. The storyline transports the viewer back more than three hundred years to the historical events of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt and then hurtles forward through time to the year of 2180, introducing a cast of characters along the way. As Ortiz’s saga unfolds, history mingles with the future in a bold new chapter of resistance and revolution in his art and installations. Inspired by the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, the most successful uprising in history, Ortiz reimagines the rebellion through a futuristic lens where tradition and innovation collide. 

This talk is the second of two joint events organized with RISD’s Ceramics Department. The first event is a public lecture the day prior (Oct. 15) at RISD Museum, 2 to 3 p.m.