August 1 - 5:30pm | Felipe Ortiz leads an Artist Talk & Walk, demonstrating and discussing his recent mural work in Newburyport. The talk begins in Newburyport Art’s Sculpture Garden.
Commencing July 11th, internationally-renowned, Massachusetts muralist Felipe Ortiz will be in residence as the Lead Artist of We Share One Sky (NBPT Murals) — a public art murals project spearheaded by Newburyport Art, in collaboration with the Tannery Marketplace, Blochaus Art Gallery, and the City of Newburyport, with generous support from the Essex County Community Foundation’s (ECCF’s) Creative County Initiative (CCI). For several weeks, Felipe will be working on two sites while engaging with the public through presentations, demonstrations, and interactive work.
This page will receive some additional updates as the project evolves, but the latest updates will be posted on social media. To stay in the loop and track the project, follow both Newburyport Art and Felipe Ortiz on Instagram!
A precise work timetable is not available and will be weather permitting. Estimated timing is below:
Mid-July at the Tannery
Estimated working dates: July 12-19
Site 1: South-facing facade of Mill #4 of the Tannery Marketplace.
Late-July at Newburyport Art
Estimated working dates: July 22-27
Site 2: Sculpture Garden & Hills Gallery of Newburyport Art, with hopes to further engage the public (perhaps including the public in the painting process itself.
August 1 (5:30pm) Felipe will give an artist’s talk and walk! He will begin in the NAA’s Sculpture Garden, where he will explain and demonstrate his interactive mural. The group will follow to hear him discuss his large-scale mural on Mill #4 of the Tannery Marketplace.
Felipe is in residence THRU August 4th, and there are hopes to have additional presentations and public engagement activities.
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Colombian artist Felipe Ortiz focuses on the practice of painting, from traditional easel painting to murals and public installations. In 2009, he earned a BFA in 2D Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Felipe has participated in numerous art exhibits of private and public collections, including the Fuller Craft Museum, Punto Urban Art Museum, and the corporate loan collection at DeCordova Museum. His installations have been featured in the Knight Foundation’s Horizontes Project, Northeastern University's public art collection. Fundación Culata’s Muro al Barrio, and the Ministry of Culture in Cali, Colombia. Felipe has been awarded Mass MoCA’s 2018 Assets for Artists Grant and the Cambridge Innovation Center’s 2016 Artist in Residence.
Felipe has also participated in various public art projects at local and international levels. In 2016, he founded the Fresco Exchange, a group invested in the creative and cultural exchange for artists across countries. This collaborative project supports artists through traveling art exhibits, public art interventions, workshops, and community engagement. The core mission is to share ideas between creative economies and exchange best practices in the arts. Traveling experiences help shape this project while gaining knowledge and criteria of the art world. Felipe maintains his studio practice and helps coordinate public art projects moving forward.
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My paintings and murals are a unique fusion of artistic themes, from representational views of urban scenery to my “Explosive Nature” series. My multicultural upbringing and travels between my native Colombia and the United States has helped me gain a wider perspective in my artistic interests. From Colombia’s vibrant culture, colors, sounds and dense natural scenery, to the States’ vast landscape and fast-paced urban environments, there are multiple elements I can pick from each location and merge into the pictorial and self-idealistic vision I'd like to represent.
Thematic variations include but are not limited to urban and industrial scenery, nature, abstracted geometry, expressive mark making, and a hybrid between all of these themes. The realization of his pivotal series “Explosive Nature” merges abstraction with realism to create a new sense of reality. Felipe paints warm memories of his native Colombia with expressive fervor, juxtaposed with migrating species that explore the adaptations shared between immigrants and wildlife. In recent years, I've transitioned this concept from canvas to urban art, intervening in public settings to more broadly share my messages of connection and hope.
I invite the viewer to enjoy my art almost as a modern surrealist, where each element in the painting is carefully selected, investigating the possibilities of an imaginative view within a world of associated imagery that is up to your personal, open interpretation.
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Newburyport Art has partnered with the Tannery Marketplace, Blochaus Art Gallery, and the City of Newburyport, to connect and engage residents and visitors with Newburyport through a series of large-scale, exterior mural paintings. The project includes commissioned work from muralists Felipe Ortiz (Lead Artist), Sophy Tuttle, and Jake Ginga, with additional work commissioned from artists selected through an application process. (Applications are now closed with the selection process underway.)
The murals will largely highlight minority voices and lesser-known perspectives of Newburyport, utilizing contemporary, non-traditional imagery to promote and embed them into the fabric of the City. Educational programming with hands-on opportunities — particularly for youth — will enable further, in-depth community engagement and dialogue around the theme, mural concepts, and artists’ processes.
The project kicks off in July with Lead Artist Felipe Ortiz working on the south-facing facade of the Tannery Marketplace’s Mill #4, followed by an interactive work for the Hills Gallery at Newburyport Art. In August, Jake Ginga will also work on designated Tannery Marketplace spaces, and Sophy Tuttle will follow. The artists selected through the application process will commence work as early as Fall 2023, continuing through 2024 and possibly into 2025.
The We Share One Sky public art murals project is made possible, thanks in part to the generous support from Essex County Community Foundation through the Creative County Initiative.
