Born in Diego Rivera’s hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico in 1968.  Ortiz attended Columbia College as a photography student, but a year later transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago, to study painting.  Under the tutelage of Rod Carswell, Julia Fish, and Kerry James Marshall he received a BFA in Painting and Printmaking in 2001.  He has since exhibited his work at the University Club of Chicago; the Evanston Art Center; National Museum of Mexican Art; the Rockford Art Museum; the Wright Museum of Art at Beloit, Wisconsin; the Painting Center, New York; James May Gallery, Wisconsin; and the Meadows Gallery at the University of Texas.  Ortiz’s paintings can be found in many private and public collections throughout the United States.  Ortiz was an artist-in-residence at The Cliff Dwellers Chicago in 2005. 

Raúl Ortiz is a Chicago-based painter whose work is inspired by line, architecture, color, pattern, and nature.  An active printmaker for over ten years, Ortiz's current paintings reflect his practice (from printmaking) of layering, obliterating and gradually focusing/refining an image.  His compositions inform and unravel the images that spring out of his canvases as he adds to and peels away layers of paint.  While recent works are decidedly less descriptive, a series of works from a few years ago mirrored Monet's water lily compositions but in Ortiz’s studies Giverny was the vegetation surrounding the Lincoln Park's north lagoon with its overhanging trees that cast light and shadow on the mirror-like waters.  Born and raised in Diego Rivera's hometown of Guanajuato until age five and grew up in Chicago's Little Village, his work has always reflected a penchant for color and contrast.

To see more of Raul’s work visit his website at https://raulortizartist.wixsite.com/raul

composition no. 182

Raul Ortiz

“Composition No. 182”

Acrylic Painting on Canvas

40” x 30”

$3500

2020

composition no. 256

Kate Ferraro

“Composition No. 256”

Acrylic Painting on Canvas

30” x 40”

$3500

2021