Interview
Britta Ortiz
Britta was born in 1959 in Denmark to a carpenter father and stay-at-home mom. She has been professionally trained, but her greatest artistic development has come from constantly being critical of what she is dealing with.
Britta has worked with art pretty much her whole life because it is a necessity for her. She exhibited for the first time in 2010 at her workplace, and since then her career has really taken off. She has enjoyed breaking into a world that is so very different from the world she comes from, and has learned a lot from meeting people she would otherwise have never met.
Britta tries to hold on to who she is amidst the commercialism of the art world. She always looks at art with fresh eyes - regardless of whether her works sometimes seem provocative and shocking to others.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“In fifth grade, I had a visual arts teacher who was an artist, and he came to play a crucial role in my interest in art. He took interest in my creative abilities and gave me the opportunity to attend extra classes when I had free time. When there were major projects in the school, like painting scenery for theater performances, he asked the other teachers if I could take time off from their classes to help him. Even after I started high school, I continued having classes with him in the evenings.
In high school, I also got to work with an artist in visual arts who offered me a chance to attend a preparatory course for admission to the art academy every Saturday. I attended this course for 1½ years, but in the end my parents did not want me to go to the art academy. They thought I would be less dedicated to academics, as I had the highest grade point average in my high school when I graduated. I therefore applied to study medicine and have since also studied psychology and done a master's degree in health anthropology.
During my medical studies, however, I found out that I have to use both halves of my brain if I am to be able to function optimally. I have therefore worked with art most of my life, but it was not until 2010 that I first showed my art to the outside world.”
What would you say inspires you most?
“Today, I am glad that I did not choose to become a full-time artist, because through my work, where I have also used my education in a slightly different way than most other doctors, I have learned how enriching it is to meet people who have a completely different background than myself. I constantly face new challenges and learn new things, which is incredibly important to me.
I have a hectic working life, where I have my finger on the pulse in relation to what is happening in the healthcare system, where I myself help to influence the development in the region where I live, as I participate in the planning of the efforts. I live alone on a country estate surrounded by nature, and the silence and tranquility descends upon me when I return home. This interaction between pulsating life and nature is an eternal source of inspiration in my art.
However, it is not only my working life that inspires me - so do developments in society and what is happening in my family. It's all being processed through my brain and through my view of the world we live in.”
“My attitude to the world is very existentialist, and both my art and my life are constantly moving between the positive and negative poles. Sometimes my works are idyllic, but I also love to portray the less beautiful sides of life, and I know that my art can sometimes seem provocative to someone. However, I do not work consciously to provoke people. I just portray the things that occupy and interest me.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“The Danish art critic Tom Jørgensen describes, among other things, my art in the following way: ‘The message is rarely directly political. Britta Ortiz is more interested in the general human conditions, and some of the images have a dreamy and symbolic character. Existential basic conditions such as loneliness, anxiety, anger and resignation, but also solidarity and empathy characterize these images, which attach themselves to the retina. In terms of graphics, Britta Ortiz’s woodcuts and linoleum cuts with their sharp-edged image structure and social indignation are reminiscent of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz and our own Søren Hjort Nielsen and Jane Muus.’”
“Tom Jørgensen has in many ways captured what it is I want to express. Humans believe in many ways that they are worth more and more intelligent than animals. I'm not so sure. Our challenge is that we always look at animals from a human perspective because we are unable to portray and understand the animals from their own perspective. Therefore, humans are also surprised time and time again because they discover that animals are both intelligent, have feelings, dreams and a memory - something that they thought was unique to humans. In fact, scientists have a hard time defining what a human is, which may be because we are basically an animal.
Some of my works contain symbols because I want the viewer to stop and reflect without perhaps fully understanding what the meaning of the work they are viewing is. Sometimes the answer has to be found in the titles I sometimes give my works. However, the answer can also be many different things that it is up to the viewer to interpret. Other times I just want to pass on that joy of nature and nature experiences - an encounter with an animal, an insect or a magnificent landscape. At times, I also want to show that there is beauty in what some people distance themselves from or try to escape from. In other words, I try to portray the beautiful in the ugly.”
“The starting point of my work is naturalistic. There are always recognizable figures, objects and the like in my works. Sometimes it's just a naturalistic work. Other times, however, there are other things behind it, and the recognizable elements take on a new meaning, making the works move in a more surreal direction.”
Which artists influence you most?
“The two artists who have meant the most to my artistic development are Vincent van Gogh and Edward Munch. These are two artists that I became acquainted with early in life and studied in depth. I have always been very fascinated by van Gogh's drawings. He showed me how a black and white image can have lots of life through the way each line is put on the paper. His letters to his brother taught me how it is possible to express and reinforce emotions through the way colors are composed and in relation to what colors are used in a painting, and then his paintings are just wonderful.
My first encounter with Munch is something I still remember. I was a teenager and saw a small black and white picture of the painting ‘The Scream’ and was completely captivated. Never had I seen emotions expressed so strongly through a painting - even if it was only a very small photo of the work.”
What is your creative process like?
“My creative process depends on what material I work with. When I work with graphics, I have to work out a sketch that I work with until I am happy with the result. Then I copy the sketch mirror-inverted onto the linoleum or wood board. I often work here a little further with it before I start slicing. When I am done I can press a test print to see if there are details that need to be changed. I carry all my prints by hand with a small printing roller, because that, I think, gives a more vivid expression than if I use a printing press.
When I paint, there is a constant dialogue with the painting I work with. Here I can start with a sketch on the canvas and have an idea of how I would like it to look, but often it changes in my dialogue with the painting. Therefore, it can sometimes take months for me to paint a painting as I am constantly changing it. Paint things over. Outline something new, and so the process continues until I'm done. I prefer this slow process.
I also work with clay. Here the process is even more free, as I here rarely have an idea of what the end product should look like, but let my hands and brain work, as I am constantly getting new ideas, and the shape is constantly changing in relation to this.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“Artists have a very important function, as through their art they question the things that are happening in the world. They ask the provocative questions. At the same time, artists are creative people who can sometimes help to change other people's views of the world we live in, and it helps to create change.
Art can express feelings and thoughts that other people can reflect on. Sometimes it means that they feel that they are not alone with the feelings and thoughts they have.
Artists often have a sensitive mind. This means that they often experience changes in society before other people do. Therefore, some of the greatest artists are only understood after they have died, and therefore artists help to create an exciting development in society that makes them play a crucial role in relation to the path in which society moves.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“A small selection of the exhibitions I have participated in:
Censored exhibitions
• The censored exhibition in Næstved
Kunstforening 2012. Participated with one oilpainting.
• The Censored Spring Exhibition Hillerød 2017. Participated with one oilpainting and two linocuts
• Morild-Art, 24 June - 26 August 2017, guest exhibitor (censored)
• The Censored Spring Exhibition Hillerød 2018. Participated with three woodcuts.
• March 30 - April 1, 2018 - The exhibition about the male body at Cph. Arts Space (censored exhibition). I participated with two woodcuts.
• 9 November - 15 December 2019 Roskilde Open. I participated with two linocuts.
Danish exhibitions
• June 26 - August 22, 2021 - the exhibition "Wildlife in art", Køng Museum Read about it here.
• 10 - 25 July 2021 exhibition in Kunstnergaarden, Dianalund together with Valentina Trantel Djurhuus
Exhibitions abroad
• Winter 2020/2021, exhibition with 10 inkdrawings in The Brick Lane Gallery
• 2021 and 2022 I exhibit at PAKS Gallery in PAKS Gallery in the castle Hubertendorf / Austria, PAKS Gallery in Munich and PAKS Gallery in Vienna Read about it here.
• 20. november 2020 - 20 januar 2021 udstilling i Rossocinabro Gallery i Rom
• July 25 - September 20, 2019 (biennale) I participated in ANIMA MUNDI 2019 in the exhibition CONSCIOUSNESS, IN THE ROOM Read about it here.
• 14 - 18 September 2019 I participated in the exhibition "Collection" in Jelmoni Studio Gallery Exhibition, Via Molineria S. Nocolò, 8, Piazenca, Italy.
• 11. 18 October 2019 I participated in the group exhibition "Mindfulness", Gallery of Modern Art, Hoxton 253, London.
• 10 - 13 October 2019, I participated electronically in the exhibition Art San Diego, USA
• 13 - 25 October 2018 I exhibit in gallery ARTtime in Udine, Italy Click here to watch.
