Welcoming Chicago-based artist Raúl Ortiz to the Side Street Gallery.
Raúl Ortiz is a Chicago-based painter whose work is inspired by the 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 growing up in Chicago's Little Village, his work has always reflected a penchant for color and contrast.
Opening Reception: Friday, May 7, 6-8pm
Gallery Hours Saturdays 12-6pm Sundays 11am-3pm FREE and open to the public
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. works in Chicago, IL.
Cover Photo Image: Composition No. 250, 2021, Acrylic on linen, 12" x 16" x .75"
