[oil and wax on kozo paper]
38 x 39 x 5 cm | 15 x 15 3/8 x 2 in (framed)
Bernardo Ortiz’s practice is defined by the careful interweaving of drawing, philosophy, design and writing in works whose support—albeit decisive—acts as a space of both convergence and tension. Infinite layers of oil or enamel, repeated decontextualized words carefully placed on a paper recalling a constellation of stars, hundreds of subtle lines made in graphite, diminutive marks in Chinese ink or gouache, or a succession of methodical and random folds, are just but a few of the formal strategies employed by the artist; besides emphasizing the two-dimensionality of the support, these strategies lay stress on the significance of the act of doing. Completed by way of long accumulation processes that suggest the passing of time, the works on view seek to highlight the notion of surface as a catalyst territory where the pictorial, the literary and the printed come together in a visual and conceptual game based on the vocabulary of modern painting. Free of frames and always ‘exposed’ so as to manifest their vulnerable nature and apprehend their materiality, Ortiz’s drawings are not only subtle commentaries about painting, but also reproductions on a support that articulate the complex relation between image and text.
Recent shows include: ‘Fricção’, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo (2017); ‘Borrar’, MAMBA Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina (solo, 2016); ‘Agora somos mais de mil’, Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016); ‘Dibujar y Robar’, Alarcon Criado, Sevilla, 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 (2015); ‘Essay’, Casas Riegner, Bogota (solo, 2013); ’Ephemeropterae’, TBA 21, Vienna (2013); 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012); 11th Lyon Biennial (2011).
His work is part of collections such as: Centre National de Artes Plastiques (CNAP), France; Deustsche 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, Bogota; Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali.
Ortiz was co-curator of the 7th Mercosur Biennial (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and the 41 Salón Nacional de Artistas (Cali, Colombia).