Andrew Ortiz uses poetic digital montages to combine fragments from his life, symbols of his Mexican heritage and icons from his American middle-class background. The elements in his montages float in curious proximity to one another; the objects circle like planets, drawn to one another by some inexplicable gravitational force. Ortiz explores personal identity through symbolic images representing life: weathered faces; clean bones; an infant's face; and the mirror of mortality. Ortiz creates the weightless space of dreams, a place that allows for illogical associations and a sudden awareness of the present. His work draws from his ethnic and cultural heritage, an experience of contrasts that must co-exist.

/What I am Not, 1998, Ink Jet Print, 6" x 17.5"

Andrew Ortiz has exhibited his work across the country, including solo exhibitions at the Southwest School of Art and Craft in San Antonio, Texas and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York.

Ortiz is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Visual Studies Workshop and Master of Art and Bachelor of Art degrees from Humboldt State University, California.