The Mata Ortiz Pottery Show & Sale (May2-3rd, 2026, from 10 am to 4 pm both days)

Pictured: Pottery from previous Mata Ortiz events at the MIP

HEY POTTERY FANS! The Museum of Indigenous People is proud to once again host The Mata Ortiz Pottery Show & Sale (May 2rd and May 3th, 2026, from 10 am to 4 pm both days) giving the public an opportunity to buy this unique fine pottery.

In addition, two artists will be there, one making pottery, the other firing. This freshly-fired pottery (one or two per day) will be auctioned off.

Some background on this unique style of pottery: Along the Palanganas River near the ancient ruins of Casas Grandes, in what is today northern Chihuahua, Mexico a local vaquero and self-taught potter named Juan Quezada, founded a native art movement inspired by traditions that had died out around the time of Spanish conquest.

Surrounded by a sea of pottery fragments from these ancient times, this one man began to experiment with the same raw materials available to his predecessors. With no input from the outside world, by trial and error alone, he taught himself and eventually mastered the ancient craft. Then, he taught his own extended family members and any neighbor that cared to learn.

They had discovered how to pinch and coil clay to near perfect symmetry, how to burnish with hard stones to a high polish, how to craft the finest brushes from human hair and how to make and then fire clays in the open air.

This spectacular achievement accomplished only since the 1970s has been widely publicized and featured in exhibitions and museums around the world. It has set new standards of quality for hand-built pottery.

Today nearly 300 Mata Ortiz potters are producing this fine craft. From these humble origins emerge new possibilities for contemporary design that are inspired by an aesthetic whose roots reach back a thousand years.

For more information about this pottery sale and demonstration, go to https://www.museumofindigenouspeople.org/.../may-3-4-mata...