ARTIST BIO

Christian Ortiz was born in Mexico but has lived in Chicago most of his life, where he works as an artist and educator. Christian received his BFA in fiber studies and BSED in art education from Northern Illinois University, and his MFA in fiber and material studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There he was the first recipient of the Wilson/Livingstone Graduate Fellowship and received the World Less Travelled Grant, through which he researched weaving traditions of Oaxaca. In his practice, Christian uses fiber processes to explore themes around immigrant labor, migration, and displacement by connecting it to the immigrant labor experiences of his family and his own labor as an artist. Christian is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the fiber and material studies department, and serves as Gallery Manager at Weinberg/Newton Gallery – supporting the gallery's mission of educating and engaging the public on social justice issues through artwork and programming.