The Cosmic Circle of Cruz Ortiz

By PAUL LASTER March, 2022

One of the most conversant and venturesome contemporary artists making work today, Cruz Ortiz may be far from the center of the art world in San Antonio, but he continuously has his finger on its aesthetic pulse. Interested in art since childhood, he overcame hardship and exclusion in order to passionately pursue it.

Equally influenced by his Mexican, European and Native American heritage, Ortiz creates art from what he sees, what he knows and what he’s learning. Starting out as a sculptor and printmaker in the early 2000s, he taught himself to paint by studying the work of artists who he admires and through years of dedicated persistence and determined experimentation.