Bernardo Ortiz draws words. Focusing on drawing as a means to capture time, the artist forsakes mimetic images of the world and emphasizes the minute effects of things and events. Simple forms like lines, dots, and some doodles and collages are recorded in the artist's books, notebooks, restaurant napkins, commercial flyers, and other media. He is interested in the journey, the transient, drawing as a path, and what it involves in the process. Thus, his series of drawings are always unfinished, always waiting for silent marks of everyday life.
Recent exhibitions include: Blur, MAMBA Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina (solo, 2016); Now we are more than a thousand, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016); Draw and Steal, Alarcon Criado, Seville, Spain (solo, 2015); Hotel Theory, REDCAT, Los Angeles, USA (2015); Biennial of the Americas, MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA (2015); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London, England (2015); Essay, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia (solo, 2013); Ephemeropterae, TBA 21, Vienna, Austria (2013); 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012); 11th Lyon Biennale, France (2011).
Collections where his work is part of include: Centre National de Artes Plastiques (CNAP), France; Deutsche Bank, Berlin; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (CPPC), New York; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate Collection, England; Kadist Collection, San Francisco / Paris; Colección Maraloto, Bogotá; Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali.
Ortiz was co-curator of the 7th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and the 41st Salón Nacional de Artistas (Cali, Colombia). He has worked as a professor at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Universidad del Valle, and Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes, both in Cali.