From a hot air balloon to a monumental airport sculpture, artist Virgil Ortiz scales up

This was the year Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz embarked on his two biggest projects to date. In February, Albuquerque International Sunport officials announced that Ortiz had been chosen for a major commission at the airport — a 16-foot-tall steel sculpture, titled “Po’pay, Leader of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.” Then, in October, Ortiz brought his artistic vision to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in the form of a seven-story hot air balloon, “Revolt Rising.”

“The Sunport project is very exciting,” Ortiz said. “I’ve never entered any contest or anything like that, but my friends pushed me to do it, and — lo and behold — I got chosen. I’m very thankful for it.”

Ortiz felt it was important to bring Pueblo history to the Sunport.

“Everybody who comes to New Mexico (by plane) comes through the Sunport,” he said. “I want them to really acknowledge whose land we’re on, and it’s Pueblo land. So, my sculpture is titled ‘Po’pay, Leader of the Pueblo Revolt.’ Without him, none of the Pueblo people would be here.”

Ortiz said he has dedicated his life to educating people about the Pueblo Revolt, which he does using traditional materials like hand-harvested clay, as well as digital media, fashion and — most recently — a hot air balloon.

“I’m always looking for different venues that are different from the ones I normally work in, such as museums or galleries,” Ortiz said. “But now to have my art at Balloon Fiesta, put a whole different set of eyes on it that have never looked at my art work before — the clay works that I’m normally known for — so that was quite exciting.”

Born into the prominent Herrera family of Pueblo potters, Ortiz grew up on Cochiti Pueblo, where he still lives, learning nonfigurative pottery traditions from his relatives. Around the age of 16, though, his style began to change, influenced, in part, by science fiction films.

“I started to create different imaginary characters out of clay,” he said.

An Albuquerque-based dealer in Indigenous art, Robert Gallegos, who was a family friend, became very interested in these new pieces and asked Ortiz’s parents, “Who’s teaching this kid how to do all these different types of figurative pottery?”

“My parents told him, ‘He’s just experimenting, but we’re supporting him as long as he’s working with the traditional clay,’” Ortiz said.

So, Gallegos invited the teenage Ortiz and his parents to his Albuquerque gallery.

“All of us were blown away, because when we stepped into the showroom, he had the largest collection of historic Cochiti figurative pottery that we’ve ever seen, and they were all from the 1800s, and all of my pieces that I was experimenting with looked exactly identical to them. It was wild,” Ortiz said. “So, my parents, when we caught our breath, took me outside and just said, ‘Remember this day, because this is something we didn’t teach you. We didn’t know about them. Remember this day. It’s special. It’s the Clay Mother talking to you, and through you, teaching something that we couldn’t teach you.'”

That experience gave Ortiz the confidence to continue making imaginative, figurative ceramic pieces, confirming for him that he was still part of an ancestral tradition. Over the years, Ortiz has developed a complex iconography combining Pueblo history, mythology and Indigenous futurism.

“The pieces from the 1800s … were all based on social commentary. What the Cochiti people were doing was making characters or figures of all the non-Indigenous people who were coming into our area via the newly laid railroads … So, you see examples of opera figures … and circus sideshow figures, like half-man, half-animal or tattooed bodies or conjoined twins,” Ortiz said. “It’s kind of cool, because that leaves the door wide open for me, and I’m following in their footsteps. … I comment on politics, on the LGBTQ community — everything is free game. I use the clay how our ancestors did to educate everybody on what they’re looking at.”

The educational component is important to Ortiz, who said Pueblo history is rarely taught in schools in the United States. By making more public art, he hopes to increase awareness about Pueblo history, as well as to get people talking about the future of Pueblo civilization.

“When I’m doing shows in Europe, or even Australia, the public knows what my work is about. They understand our history more than Americans do,” Ortiz said.

The Sunport commission, which is still a work-in-progress, will be installed in the security section of the airport, allowing the artist to confront visitors with New Mexican history in a playful way.

“I always giggle, because he’s the leader of the Pueblo Revolt, and he’s welcoming the public to the Albuquerque area, and to New Mexico, and he’s going to be installed in the security area,” Ortiz said. “I was telling my friends, he’s going to be looking at everybody and telling them, ‘You’re an immigrant. You’re an immigrant. You’re an immigrant.’ But that’s just the truth. And that’s what my art is all about — asking the public to acknowledge who we are as a people, and that we’re still here, living, thriving and creating.”