Dionis Ortiz is a multimedia artist, community art producer, and educator who works in printmaking, collage, and sculpture. Drawing from his experiences as a child born and raised in Harlem of Dominican descent, he creates geometric, process-based works from ill-regarded and found materials to celebrate the people of the diaspora.
He was a participant in the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, received a Rema Hort Mann Artist Community Engagement Grant, and has been an Artist in Residence at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. He has produced several solo exhibitions in New York and his work was recently included in Estamos bien: La Trienal 20/21 at El Museo Del Barrio (New York).
Community engagement is central to his practice and he has produced projects for Harlem River Park Fund, Museum of Art and Design, and ImageNation. This community work extends to teaching and Ortiz teaches all ages from pre-K to teenagers and undergraduates at Hunter College.
This year, he is in residence at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytellingand his mural design was selected by Public Color for an elementary school in East Harlem. His work has been featured in The New York Times several times and is included in Latinx Art: Artists, Market, and Politics by Arlene Dávila.
Dionis Ortiz
E. dortizstudio@gmail.com / P. 917. 331. 2913
All images © Dionis Ortiz 2021 and may not be used or reproduced without permission.
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EDUCATION
2018 MFA, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY
2001 BFA, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND RESIDENCIES
2022 Artist in Residence program, The Children’s Art Carnival, New York, NY
2021 City Artists Corps Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling Artist-in-Residence Program,
New York, NY
2020 Children’s Museum Of Manhattan Residency, New York, NY
Underdonk Gallery Residency, Brooklyn, NY
Creative Action Fund Mini-Grant, Laundromat Project, New York
2019 The President’s Award, Hunter College, New York, NY
Rema Mann Hort Artist Community Engagement Grant, New York, NY
Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT
Dorothy Day Early Childhood Center, New York, NY
2018 Create Change Fellowship, The Laundromat Project, New York, NY
Artist in Residence, Materials For The Arts, New York, NY
2017 Kossak Travel Grant, Hunter College, New York, NY
2014 Summer Ink Scholarship, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, NY
Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Program, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY
2013 Studio Immersion Project, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY
2011 NYFA Artists As Entrepreneurs Boot Camp, Brooklyn, NY
Individual Artist Grant, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, New York, NY
2010 Individual Artist Grant, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, New York, NY
2009 Harlem Community Arts Fund, Harlem Arts Alliance, New York, NY
2008 Artist in Residence Studio Program, Chashama Art Foundation, New York, NY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Heaven And Earth, Empty Set, Bronx, NY
2019 Inception, Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018-2019 Evolution, Materials For The Arts, Long Island City, NY
2011 Torn Asunder, Heath Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Migration, Columbia University, Russ Berrie Medical Pavilion and Mary Woodard Lasker
Biomedical Research Building, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 No Place like home, Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY
Modular Mosaic, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY
Charles White: Influences, Rockland Center For The Arts, West Nyack, NY
Memory, Healing, Sustainability, West Harlem Arts: 2nd Annual Exhibition Series, New York, NY
2021 Home, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling, New York, NY
Lucky To Be Here, Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
Resilience, West Harlem Arts, New York, NY
2020 Estamos Bien, La Trienal, El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY
Making The Cut, Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Reclaimed, Reimagined, Field Projects, New York, NY
The Expectation Of Others, Field Projects, New York, NY
To Love in the Time of Hysteria, Prizm Art Fair, Naiomy Guerrero, Oshun Layne, Ryan Dennis, Mikhaile
Solomon, and William Cordova, Miami, FL
2018 International Independent Art Fair, curated by Andrea Valencia Aranda and John Elammar, New York, NY
After the Flypaper: Life In Harlem in Images and Words, While We Are Still Here, New York, NY
2017 Associated Presents: Appear Here, Brethren Gallery, Queens, NY
2017-2018 Hunter MFA Thesis Exhibition, Hunter College, New York, NY
2014 Studio Immersion Project Exhibition, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY
Blackburn Exchange Show, The Ink Shop Printmaking Center, Ithaca, NY
Social In Practice, curated by Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas, Nathan Cummings Foundation
and NYU Tisch Galleries, New York, NY
Bronx Speaks No Boundaries, Bronx Arts Alliance, Bronx, NY
Aspirations, LPD Brooklyn Arts Foundation, New York, NY
Visual Aids Postcards From The Edge, Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, NY
The March, The Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Members Group Show, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY
2012 The Small Works Show, Columbia University, New York, NY
Itsa small, small world, Family Business, New York, NY
2010 Uptown Arts Stroll, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, New York, NY
Emerged, Gallery at Theatre for the New City, NY
Winter Show 2010: An Interdisciplinary Group Show, Workspace Harlem Studio, NY
2009 Cornerstone, Workspace Harlem Studio, New York, NY
Hispanic Heritage Month Festival Celebration, Riverbank State Park, New York, NY
Aqui, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Gallery, New York, NY
Nude, curated by Al Johnson, Temple M, New York, NY
Pulse, Taller Boricua, New York, NY
The Artists in BankStreet’s Backyard, Bank Street College, New York, NY
2008 Confluence: Artists Across the Hudson Divide, Oualie Arts and Inspiration Fine Art, Orange, NJ
Chashama Open Studio Exhibition, Chashama Art Foundation, New York, NY
Hispanic Heritage Month Festival Celebration, Riverbank State Park, New York, NY
Evolution: The Changing Face of Harlem, artHarlem, New York, NY
Uncommon Festival, organized by Nolej Records, Public Assembly, New York, NY
2007 Hispanic Heritage Month Festival Celebration, Riverbank State Park, New York, NY
Arte Con Color Latino, Picture That, Stamford, CT
Formation, Inspiration Fine Arts and Columbia University, New York, NY
2006 Unbridled, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Harlem Open Studio, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Celebration Of Summer, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Faces & Places, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
2005 Night Of A Thousand Drawings, Artists Space, New York, NY
New Roots, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Harlem Open Studio, Hamilton Landmark Gallery, New York, NY
2003 The Changing Same: Artists in Harlem, Triple Candie Gallery, New York, NY
COMMISSIONED PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2022 Broadway Housing Community, New York, NY
2020 Publicolor, New York, NY
2011 Harlem River Park Fund, New York, NY
2009 Heineken Mural Art Program, Heineken, White Plains, NY
CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE
2022 Black Metropolis, The Children’s Art Carnival, New York, NY
2021 Out of Sight, Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (forthcoming)
2009 Cornerstone, Workspace Harlem Studio, New York, NY
2007 Formation, Inspiration Fine Arts and Columbia University, New York, NY
2006 Unbridled, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Harlem Open Studio, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Celebration Of Summer, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
Faces & Places, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
2005 New Roots, Inspiration Fine Art, New York, NY
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2021 Give Me the Light, The Children’s Art Carnival, New York, NY
2019 Give Me the Light, ImageNation, New York, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2021 Teaching Artist-in-Residence, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York, NY
2019 - Adjunct Assistant Professor, City University of New York, Hunter College, New York, NY
2019 - 2020 Teaching Artist-in-Residence, Broadway Housing Communities, New York, NY
2019 Assistant Art Educator, Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY
2018 Teaching Artist, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York, NY
2018 Teaching Artist, Dedalus Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Teaching Artist, Sitka Fine Arts Camp, Sitka, AK
2016 - 2017 Volunteer Teaching Artist, P.S. 210, New York, NY
COURSES TAUGHT
2022 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (upcoming Fall 2022)
2019-2021 Printmaking, Hunter College, Department of Arts, New York, NY
WORKSHOPS
2021 Mixed Media Printmaking, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, New York, NY
2020 Protest Art with Dionis Ortiz: Do the Right Thing, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling,
New York, NY
COLLECTIONS
United Way of New York City, New York, NY
PUBLICATIONS
2021 Elia Alba, Rodrigo Moura and Susanna V. Temkin, eds. Estamos Bien. New York, NY: El Museo del
Barrio.
2020 Arlene Davila. Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
2020 Titty Bingo, ed. The Unprecedented Times. New York, NY: self-published.
2015 Laura Napier and Hatuey Ramos-Fermín. Bronx Calling: The Third AIM Biennial. Bronx, NY: Bronx
Museum of the Arts.
2009 The Brooklyn Review. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn College.
PRESS
2020 Laurel Graeber, “Digital Field Trips: Museum Adventures Abound for Kids,” New York Times, June 18.
2020 Laurel Graeber, “Grown-Up Art at a Children’s Museum, but It’s Still Playtime,” New York Times,
February 12.
2020 Audre Lamber, “21 Artists to Watch in 2021: Part 2 of 2021’s Movers and Shakers,” ANTE Magazine.
2009 El Diario La Prensa
Defining Trends Magazine
2008 Timothy Williams, “Art Show Examines Harlem Gentrification,” New York Times, September 25.