Anna Ortiz Explores Borderlands Through Vibrant Paintings

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Artist Anna Ortiz delves into the concept of the“mythic borderland” in her new body of work, Shapeshifter, which features vibrant, remote landscapes.

Drawing on her Mexican-American heritage, Ortiz employs limited yet vivid palettes, showcasing jungle terrains with subtle shifts in tone and saturation using blues, greens, and pinks. This focused approach aims to emphasize the fantastic, variable nature of the worlds she depicts, presenting them as manifestations of myth. The exhibition includes works such as“Inundada,”“Jaguar Reflejado,”“Espejo Obsidiana,”“El Corredor,”“Floracion,”“Las Garzas,”“Equilibrium,” and“Un Eclipse en Doble.”

In Mesoamerican folklore, the jaguar is recognized as a nagual, a being capable of transforming into an animal and acting as a spiritual guide between realms. Ortiz utilizes this metaphor to represent the transition into these mythic borderlands.

Her work expands on themes of borderlands and the collapse of time and space, incorporating recurring motifs like an explosive volcano, a double moon, and reflective pools of water. These elements establish her uncanny realms as places where multiple realities coexist and change is an unavoidable force.

Ortiz's paintings resonate with the writings of feminist author Gloria Anzaldúa, whose ideas on mixed heritage, the borderland, and the nagual are echoed in the artist's practice. Anzaldúa's 1992 essay,“The New Mestiza Nation,” includes a passage that serves as a fitting companion to Ortiz's artistic approach:

Shapeshifter is currently on view at Chart Gallery in Tribeca and will remain open through October 31.

Source: This Is Colossal

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