Eli Ortiz: Black on Black Mata Ortiz Pottery San Ramon 45: Cerámica de Mata Ortiz

45: Cerámica de Mata Ortiz

regal and serene

and other emblematic characters of Oaxacan life

This one-piece Colima dog figurine

Eli Ortiz: Black on Black Mata Ortiz Pottery San Ramon 45: Cerámica de Mata OrtizEli Ortiz keeps the Ortiz tradition alive in black. He is the son of the late Eduardo "Chevo" Ortiz, one of Mata Ortiz's most celebrated potters, and this piece carries that lineage directly. The graphite black on black technique that defines this olla traces back to the Ortiz family itself. Chevo's brother Macario discovered that graphite left on a pot's surface before firing retained its silvery sheen afterward, and what began as an accidental