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 Massachusetts Cultural Council’s STARS residency grant in 2023 to continue “Harvest” and ongoing mural project in East Boston in partnership with the Boston Public Schools, HarborArts and Eastie farm.

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. The collective traveling experiences have helped shape this project while providing valuable knowledge of the art world. Currently, Felipe Maintains his studio practice while also coordinating public art projects.

Artist Statement: 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.