Cochiti Pueblo Pottery Turtle By Viril Ortez

Late 20th Century

1.625" H x 4.625" L x 3" W

Hand Coiled Black on White Turtle with a Painted Rooster Motif Design on the Back of His Shell Signed Viril Ortez Cochiti Pueblo

From a Private Colorado Collection

In Very Good Condition

Virgil Ortiz (often misspelled as “Viril Ortez” or similar) is a well-known contemporary Cochiti Pueblo artist from New Mexico, renowned for traditional and innovative pottery, figurative ceramics, fashion, and multimedia work that draws on Cochiti traditions and themes like the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. virgilortiz.com He comes from a family of distinguished Cochiti potters: his grandmother Laurencita Herrera and mother Seferina Ortiz were highly regarded figurative potters, and his father Guadalupe Ortiz (1929–2015) also made pottery later in life. Virgil learned traditional Cochiti techniques (hand-coiling local clay, natural slips and pigments such as wild spinach black, outdoor firing) from family members and is known for both classic forms and edgy, futuristic reinterpretations of historic Cochiti “monos” (figurative pottery).