Mauricio Cortes Ortega is a Mexican-American multidisciplinary artist based in New York. His work explores Latin American colonial history through painting and sculpture. He is interested in precious objects like textiles and crowns with complex trajectories as they relate to power and splendor. He holds degrees from The Cooper Union (B.F.A) and the Yale School of Art (M.F.A). Mauricio has held numerous fellowships and residencies; he was a fellow of the 39th cycle of the Artist in the Marketplace program (AIM) at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, in 2018 he was an artist resident at Museo Arte Grafica in Saltillo Mexico, and the Smelser Vallion Visiting Artist at the Doel Reed Art Center in New Mexico. He was a recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Artist Community Grant in 2017, the Schell Center for International Human Rights Travel fellowship (Yale Law School) in 2015 and the Jóvenes Creadores Fellowship (Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts) in 2014. During his time at The Cooper Union he was awarded the Menschel Travel Fellowship Award and the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Painting Fellowship (Norfolk Yale School of Art).
