Christian Ortiz was born in Mexico but has lived in Chicago for most of his life, where he now works as an artist and educator. Christian received his BFA in fiber studies and his 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 pursued independent research to study the weaving traditions of Oaxaca. In his practice, Christian uses fiber processes to explore themes around immigrant labor, migration, and displacement by connecting it to his own labor as an artist. As an educator, Christian works as Senior Manager of Studio Programs at Marwen, where he develops curriculum and programming to support students’ individual artistic and personal development.
