Leticia Ortega Cortes
Statement
I keep finding myself negotiating with my desirability to work with painting as well as with sculpture. This negotiation later becomes, a multi-faceted conversation with myself due to the fact that I am deeply attracted to both abstraction and figuration. I’m visually attentive to the loose merging and layering of colors in painting as occurs in an atmospheric landscape. In contrast, I’m also consciously rendering recognizable forms including the human figure. I mostly employ oil paint on rigid-supported dry gesso, which yields a smooth, absorbent, and luminous surface. The application of paint and pigments to the surface is of great importance to me whether through a delicate veiling process, variations in saturation, tone and hue, or through thick, resolute layers. As with painting, my language in sculpture comes in both figurative and referential abstraction forms. I use porcelain and stoneware to survey different technical approaches.
Bio
Leticia Ortega is a visual artist born in Mexico and based in New York City. She divides her practice between the city and the Hudson Valley where she embraces her love for nature.
Ortega has mastered different media including oil painting, watercolor, sculpture, printmaking, and installation. She has exhibited solo a number of times in the United States and Mexico including John Davis Gallery in NY and Museo de las Culturas in Coahuila. Her work was selected in the Biennial Olga Costa I. She is recipient of numerous prestigious awards including Vitro Art Center in Monterrey and the Coahuila State Arts Grant in Mexico. Her work is found in public and private collections.
Ortega is also an art educator, founder and director of Wet Paint! Art Studio in NYC. She is co-founder and curator of several cultural centers and galleries including Galería NIX in Saltillo, and NIX NY art space, the window, and Front art space in NYC.
She holds art studies from Parsons School of Design, Cooper Union and School of Visual Arts in NYC, and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Coahuila State University in Mexico.