Out of Mexico’s richly historic Oaxacan Zapotec textile community of Teotitlán del Valle, Porfirio Gutiérrez is celebrated for fusing his ancestral belief in nature as a living being, sacred and divine, into revitalizing, teaching, and innovating on traditional Zapotec natural dyeing techniques. Raised in mountain wilderness, Gutiérrez has a natural passion for the abundant fauna and flora and the many botanicals commonly used for medicine and pigment. Working and living in Oaxaca, Mexico and Ventura, California, the colorist/weaver reinterprets age-old icons into contemporary art pieces, drawing on the architecture and space he sees in urban design. It’s a here-and-now twist on traditional weaving language best illustrated with the group of ruby to neutral-colored woven works suspended from the ceiling. Our front walls shows the striking Zapotec geometric in an array of whites and grays, all un-dyed, all-natural wool, no added coloration because sheep come in many colors! With his striking blue Zapotec weave, the artist shows off his immersive hues of indigo, from the palest to the darkest, allowing his masterful coloration to determine the design. Gutiérrez wants us to think about how he moves freely between Mexico and the United States, as his ancestors have done for thousands of years. Straddling two cultures, his designs deftly mesh the traditional with the modern. A recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Artist in Leadership fellowship award, his weaving is in the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, Fomento Cultural Banamex, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian. Remarkably, the master’s dye materials are part of Harvard Art Museum’s Forbes Pigment Collection, the globe’s premier archive of artist materials.