Virgil Ortiz Rolls Out Indigenous Imprints™ Collection

Aqua Hospitality Carpets Summer 2011 features the Indigenous Imprints™ collection created by Virgil Ortiz.

Ortiz, a prolific designer of pottery, jewelry and fashion, combines the artistic traditions of his native Cochiti Pueblo ancestors with bold and contemporary concepts. Consisting of twenty unique patterns, his design concepts balance the contemporary and the traditional for guest rooms, corridors and public spaces.

Scroll down to see his carpet designs and read his interview with Aqua Hospitality.

Tell us a little about your background and why you make pottery?
I grew up on the Cochiti Pueblo reservation in New Mexico where I helped my family make pottery, never really knowing it was an art form because it was always around.

Is there a particular style of work you prefer?
All the pottery I create is a revival of the older pieces my ancestors made from the 1800’s found in Cochiti. The designs are all based on social commentary and I use traditional methods and materials to create the pottery. They all have very special meanings taken from both nature and ceremonial looks from the different families on the reservation.

Who and what inspires you?
Both of my parents, their families and the entire Pueblo people of Cochiti inspires me. I collect my grandmothers’ pottery from auctions and use these historic pieces as my inspiration. The two most important elements of Pueblo life are our language and our art.

Where is your favorite place to go for creativity?
On the Pueblo. I am a visual person and I remember everything I see. From the Pueblo I can incorporate my designs into many different mediums, my clothing and accessories, pottery and now interior finishes.

How would you best describe yourself?
Very family oriented. Everything I do is to help the children on the reservation. Everything comes full circle; everything comes back to the pottery, to the language, to art, to kids. I want to pass on the family traditions to the next generation and keep it alive.

What is one of you fondest memories?
Growing up we would all go as a family to collect the materials and supplies needed to create the pottery. It was fun and everyone enjoyed searching for the right items. We still do that today and everyone enjoys helping me find the appropriate materials to create the pottery.

Name one life lesson you have learned?
To keep our family traditions alive and to give the children the backbone to be able to go out and do whatever they want.

What legacy would you like to leave for the next generation?
Pottery making and our ceremonial ways on how you are supposed to do things in our culture.

Best gift you ever received
Pottery made by my grandmother

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
I believe animals are very intelligent. Our elders give us an animal name when we are born, mine is the badger.

My purpose in life is...
To create opportunities for children in the Pueblo that reflects the legacy of our ancestors while promoting a global awareness of the Pueblo culture.

A typical day looks like...?
No rest!

Best book you have recently read?
I love all types of books but my favorite is fiction. The fictional stories take me to another place that I typically would not go. It also helps me to teach the children how to take their minds to a different place. It helps with creativity.

Best movie you have seen?
I am a movie buff! Again I like the fiction movies. I study them because eventually I would like to produce a movie.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Traveling so I can see what is not on the reservation. Georgia Sweet Tea!

What do you consider a “hot “ trend?
Hot trends are disposable. Being native, we respect everything living and I use nature a lot because it’s traditional and the designs last forever.

Click here to view the entire collection.

Article | Virgil Ortiz in the New Mexico Independent

Virgil Ortiz is one of the more prolific of the Native designers working today. He is consistently spotlighted in National and International publications. Below is a recent article about Virgil Ortiz written by David Garcia for the New Mexico Independent. To read the original article, and to access the video clip, click on the following link:


It's even OK to call Virgil Ortiz 'le sauvage primitif'

By David Alire Garcia
5/9/09 8:43 PM

New Mexico artist Virgil Ortiz lives in a provocative multi-media world that extends out to L.A. and New York, Paris and Barcelona, but always zooms back to his native Cochiti Pueblo.

I got a chance to interview Oritz a couple weeks ago. The end result: a 10-minute profile of Oritz broadcast last night on KNME-TV. You can also watch it below.

Yesterday, Ortiz turned 40.

He could have been someplace celebrating his roaring success as a potter and fashion designer (among several other disciplines), but instead he was off in White Sands New Mexico, overseeing a photo shoot for his upcoming 2010 line of fashion.

At one point during the interview, Oritz gave his own description of the new line of clothes he’s set to unveil at New York Fashion Week next February:

I guess you would call it a rocked out vagabond thing. Like a vampire meets Red Hot Chile Peppers.

Whatever you call it, it’s quite the explosion of creativity. Ditto for just about everything else the man sets his mind to. Oritz does his creating — from jewlrey to painting to pottery — in his new 4,000-square-foot studio, adjacent to his home in Cochiti.

Next door, his father. Across the street, many nieces and nephews. Out back, the pits and mud brick ovens he and his family use.


It’s fair to say Ortiz was born into pottery — his mother, Seferina Ortiz, was an extremely well-known master in her own right. Her son began forging his own muddy work when he was just six.

His career to date has had him collaborating with the likes of Donna Karan on fabric designs, and conspiring to avoid the scuffles that have erupted among high-end collectors when his pottery is for sale at Santa Fe’s annual Indian Market.

And you thought you had problems!


It one telling exchange that didn’t make the video, I asked Ortiz if he sees himself as a bridge between different worlds. “I just leave it up to the viewer,” he answered. “I don’t think about it that way.” Ortiz does tell a story about how he had just finished a fashion show in Paris when a local writer actually referred to him as le savauge primitif, or primitive savage. Ortiz said he was both pissed off and encouraged with any notoriety so far from home. Since then, in several interviews he’s said — paraphrasing — he doesn’t care what he’s called, just call him.

Ortiz would later flip the slur into the theme and logo for a subsequent line of clothes.

Ortiz is often credited with reviving Cochiti Pueblo’s somewhat-recent tradition of creating storyteller figures. Called monos (or monkeys) in Spanish, the figures were in heavy demand from traders and travelers in the 1800s, though many of those early customers didn’t know they were really recipients of caustic pueblo jokes told in clay.

Other storyteller monos are more fantastical. Those of Ortiz are both — and more.

I didn’t expect the raw sexuality of the female figure pictured above.

It’s hard not to walk away impressed from Ortiz’s studio.

If you’d like a vivid preview of the movie Oritz is working on (yes, he’s also a screenwriter), be sure to watch the video. The movie is loosley based on the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

The characters of the movie also happen to overlap with those of some of the models he’s using for his 2010 fashion line. In fact, the model pictured in the still shot from the video to the right is one of the characters.

Specifically, the model — Sixtus Dominguez — is being made to look like the legendary Etamu, the “character in real life that carried the tied leather strips from pueblo to pueblo” spreading word of the rebellion to Spanish colonial rule, Ortiz explained.

Special thanks go out to KNME’s Kevin McDonald, Antony Lostetter and Kathy Wimmer. Without them, the video would have been impossible to pull off — and nowhere near as cool or fun.

(note: click on the above link to access the video clip)