Artist
Porfirio Gutierrez is a California-based Zapotec textile artist and natural dyer, born and raised in the richly historic Zapotec textile community of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up immersed in color and surrounded by the wildness of Oaxaca's mountains, and by the knowledge of plants for healing and for color. His life’s work has been revitalizing and preserving traditional Zapotec natural dye techniques with a focus on reinterpreting traditional textiles and materials to reflect his distinct creative vision.
Working in both Ventura, California, and Oaxaca, Gutíerrez’s art practice maintains his ancestor’s spiritual belief in nature as a living being, sacred and divine. His grounding in Zapotec traditional knowledge manifests in his textiles, reinterpreting the traditional weaving language, subverting and re-imagining the symbols and forms, morphing his textile designs toward the fractal forms and spaces of architecture and the movement he sees in cities and urban environments.
Gutíerrez is a truly American artist, moving freely across the imposed borders between his two countries, as his ancestors and many other Indigenous peoples have done for thousands of years. His designs draw deeply on his experiences of two cultures, moving between the traditional and the modern, but always reliant on the deep knowledge and spiritual dimensions of his work.

Selected Exhibitions
2024
2022
Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of
Indigenous Knowledge & Contemporary Art
Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA 2024
The Getty Foundation, Los Angeles, California
Futures
Arts + Industries Building, Smithsonian.
Washington DC, United Estates
Kleurstof
Textile Museum
Tilburg, Netherlands
A Powerful Past, A Shared Future
United Estates Embassies
Mexico City, Mexico
2021
Wrapped in Color: Legacies of the Mexican Sarape
Arizona State Museum
University of Arizona, Tucson
Continuous Line
Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation
Ojai, California
2019
Man of Two Worlds
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art
San Luis Obispo, California
2018
Exodus
Palm Springs Art Museum
Palm Springs, California
Ritual de los Sueños
Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Oaxaca, México
2017
Cycle of Life
Cam Gallery, Carnegie Art Museum
Oxnard, California
2016
Contemporary Art of Shibori and Ikat
10th International Shibori Symposium and Exhibition
Centro de las Artes, San Agustín, Oaxaca, México
Manos y Alma de Oaxaca
Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares
Mexico City, México
2015
Intercontinental Biennial of Indigenous Art
World Award for the most outstanding traditional art and culture. A traveling exhibit shown in London, Egypt, USA, Norway, Denmark, and Canada (2015 through 2017)
2014
Threads of Life
Museum of Ventura County,
Ventura, California
Bienal de Artes Indigenas Contemporaneo
Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares
Mexico City, México
Selected Press
The Man Preserving Endangered Colours
BBC, London, UK
When Artists and Scientists Team Up
The Getty Foundation
Los Angeles, California
Vivid Colors, Naturally
New York Times
5 ways to fix fashion’s biggest pollution problem
Vogue Australia
A Colorful Tradition
Index, Harvard University
Saving an Ancient Craft
Smithsonian Magazine
Ancient Weaving
PBS TV (video)
The Fabric of your Life
Selvedge, London
Tejedor de Sueños
Univision TV (video)
No Quería Ser un Artesano Más
El Universal (newspaper article)
Local Hero
Hole & Corner, London
Museum Collections
National Museum of American Indian
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. United Estates
Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies
Fogg Museum, Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United Estates
Fomento Cultural Banamex
Mexico City, México
MACO
Contemporary Art Museum
Oaxaca, México
Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares
Mexico City, México
Museum of Ventura County
Ventura, California, United Estates
Arizona Estate Museum
Tucson, Arizona, United Estates
Honors, Awards & Distinctions
2021
Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize
Ojai, California
2016
Artist Leadership Program
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Washington, D.C.
2012
Honorable Mention
Bienal de Artes Indigenas Contemporaneas
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes
Mexico City, México
Invited Lectures
Indigenous Technologies:
The Future of Design in Traditional Knowledge
Design Salon South Korea
Seoul, South Korea
Artist Talk: Color and Materials
Parsons School of Design, New York
A Conversation Around Practice and Tradition
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Amherst, Massachusetts
Traditional Zapotec Dyes Proctice
Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Artist Talk
Fowler Museum, UCLA
Los Angeles, California
The Art of Hand Made
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
Innovation Within Traditional Folk Art
De Young Museum
San Francisco, California
The Preservation of Zapotec Natural Dyeing Tradition
International Folk Art Market
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Focus on the Masters Artist Spotlight:
A Conversation with Porfirio Gutiérrez
Lecture, oral history and video documentation of Porfirio's life work
Ventura, California
Traditional Techniques: Preservation in the Modern World
Mingei International Museum
San Diego, California
Bring it Home
Artists Reconnecting Cultural Heritage with Community
Panel discussion with artists in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Artist Leadership Program
Washington, DC
Selected Art Fairs
2019
Texto: A Global Gathering of Master Artisans
Mexico City, México
International Handicrafters Festival
Kokand, Uzbekistan
2018
Native Art Market
National Museum of American Indian
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
International Folk Art Market
Santa Fe, New Mexico
2017
The International Master Artisan Gallery
ICFF, New York