Fall Gallery Hours
Tues., Wed., and Sat. from 2 - 6 PM
First Fridays each month from 6 - 9 PM
We Were Never Meant to Disappear
Liz Ortiz
September 6 - November 15
We Were Never Meant to Disappear is a 21-year retrospective and deeply personal solo exhibition by Liz Ortiz, founder of Mad Hare Press. Spanning two decades of previously unseen artwork, across graphite, ink, paint, photography, and printmaking. This exhibition becomes both archive and altar. It offers viewers an intimate journey through memory, resilience, and reclamation.
With quiet strength and fierce clarity, Ortiz’s work confronts cultural invisibility, generational disconnection, and the lived complexity of navigating a predominantly white community as an Indigenous Latina woman. Each piece, whether old or newly created, honors her heritage, affirms the worth of her existence, and disrupts the comfort of erasure with presence.
This exhibition becomes a living dialogue between time, identity, and place, drawing lines from survival to self-recognition, and from lineage to legacy. Through it, Ortiz invites viewers to witness what has long gone unseen: the joy, pain, and power of holding onto oneself in a world that too often turns away.
Artist bio
Liz Ortiz is a multidisciplinary artist, printmaker, and cultural strategist based in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is the founder of Mad Hare Press, a mobile micro-studio and community arts initiative centered on accessibility, education, and ancestral connection through printmaking.
Drawing from over two decades of creative work, Ortiz’s practice weaves together personal narrative, archival memory, and traditional techniques across media, including lino block and intaglio printmaking, drawing, painting, and analog photography. Her work is grounded in the exploration of identity, cultural survival, and reclaiming space as an Indigenous Latina woman raised on the front range of Colorado.
Ortiz holds a BFA in Printmaking and Photography and an MBA in Marketing Data Analytics, which she uses to inform her art practice, consulting work, and community engagement. Her exhibitions and workshops create spaces where tradition and experimentation meet, spaces rooted in story, reflection, and collective healing.
Upcoming events
Opening reception
Saturday, September 6th - 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Would you like to tour the gallery spaces?
Feel free to reach out to gallery@focomasonic.com to schedule a tour and learn more about opportunities for artists, private rentals, and public events.