NYC streetwear legend Dave Ortiz is in fine form in Mérida
In a makeshift art studio behind B&G Atelier, Dave Ortiz sits surrounded by wooden shoe lasts—those wooden foot-shaped forms used by cobblers to make shoes. To most people, they’re simply utilitarian objects. To Ortiz, they’re canvases waiting to be transformed.
“I sit with them for a while, and then they tell me what they want to be,” Ortiz explains, describing his intuitive approach to creating art from everyday objects. “I don’t have a plan. I just work… I just let it flow.”
(They will soon be on display at his first Mérida exhibition, “The Last Dance,” opening with a reception at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at B&G Atelier, Calle 43 and 54, Centro.)
This philosophy of finding art in the ordinary has defined Ortiz’s remarkable journey from the streets of Brooklyn to international recognition. The son of Puerto Rican immigrants, Ortiz’s artistic roots trace back to childhood afternoons spent with his grandmother during the late 1970s.
“We used to walk around and find stuff, and we’d also go to the junkyard and pick up random things and bring them back to her apartment. And we would paint them,” he recalls fondly.
Ortiz’s current project—painting wooden shoe lasts with vibrant, geometric designs that often resemble faces—connects to an early fascination with African masks. The transformation echoes a principle he first recognized in Pablo Picasso’s famous bull’s head sculpture made from the seat and handlebars of a bicycle: the ability to reimagine the mundane.
In the early 1990s, Ortiz became the first employee of skate lifestyle brand Zoo York, establishing himself in streetwear culture. His most significant commercial success came with his conceptual boutique Dave’s Quality Meat, designed to look like an actual butcher shop—a bold idea that began as a one-dollar bet with a friend.
“I bet my friend that I could take the corniest name and make it cool,” he laughs. The gamble paid off spectacularly, with GQ Magazine eventually naming Dave’s Quality Meat one of America’s best concept stores.
Ortiz’s most famous design is probably the Nike Air Max 90 “Bacon” sneaker. Created in collaboration with Nike, the shoe featured soft pink and brown tones, almost suggesting strips of bacon, a radical departure from the muted palette dominating sneaker design at the time.
“Who doesn’t like bacon?” Ortiz muses. Initially released as a limited edition with just 2,000 pairs worldwide, Nike re-released the iconic design in 2021, fulfilling Ortiz’s evolving philosophy: “Back then, my philosophy was ‘limited edition is cool’… Now in my 50s, I was like, ‘unlimited edition is cool.'” He takes particular pleasure in seeing his creations worn on streets worldwide.
After selling Dave’s Quality Meats to Vans in 2010, Ortiz pivoted to focus on his art, expanding into screen printing and even receiving a commission from Goya Foods for a National Puerto Rican Day Parade float. Today, his rigorous creative schedule demonstrates his commitment—working from 7 a.m. until evening in his upstate New York studio, or more recently, while he’s here for a couple of months, until early afternoon in Yucatán’s heat.
His current residency in Merida happened through classic Ortiz serendipity—a chance conversation at an art talk in Munich led to an offer of accommodation from a Mexican art collective owner. The fortuitous connection mirrors how Ortiz has navigated his artistic career, allowing opportunities to unfold naturally rather than forcing them.
“I sold a painting to a collector, and then she asked me to do an artist talk at an art collective,” Ortiz explains. “The woman who owned the art collective happened to be Mexican. When I was talking to her afterwards, I mentioned that many people I know from the Catskills in upstate New York come to Mérida during winter.”
What began as a casual conversation turned into an unexpected invitation. “She said, ‘You could stay at my place because I’m not there in the winter. Stay as long as you like.'” Testing boundaries, Ortiz jokingly suggested a two-month stay. To his surprise, she enthusiastically agreed.
This synchronicity extended beyond lodging. The collective owner’s mother runs an alternative learning school, where Ortiz soon found himself conducting another artist talk and teaching students stencil-making techniques and branding principles—skills honed during his years in the streetwear and sneaker industries.
The educational component resonated with Ortiz, who has embraced a teacher’s role in his upstate New York community. There, surrounded by barns and tractors rather than urban landscapes, he’s been developing a series called “How I See It”—documenting rural American imagery with the same attentive eye he once applied to city streets.
Upon arrival at B&G Atelier, Ortiz experienced another moment of artistic kismet. “I walked in, and all of a sudden, on the ground, in a basket, I saw all these wooden shoe lasts,” he recalls, eyes brightening. “The woman who owns the place makes shoes—she makes sandals—and I just asked her about them.”
The discovery wasn’t just coincidental—it was a continuation of a creative thread. “Two years ago, I did an art show where I found 13 shoe lasts. In the art show, it was a crazy frenzy to buy these things up.” Having promised himself to expand on this concept when the opportunity arose, Ortiz immediately recognized the moment.
Just as he sealed that deal, they sealed a much bigger one. He mentioned looking for a place to create art for the next two months. She suggested a humble, three-sided spot around the back. The owner, Alicia Gamboa, and Ortiz shook hands on the spot. It was another example of how Ortiz’s openness to chance has shaped his artistic journey from New York City to the Catskills to Yucatán.
As Ortiz prepares for “The Last Dance” exhibition, he’s already envisioning future projects that might or might not blend his observations of upstate New York with the vibrant imagery of Mérida. True to form, he’s not forcing outcomes but remaining open to possibilities.
In the meantime, he dons his headphones and gets to work, painting steadily at least six days a week.
“You can’t have an art show unless you make art,” he says simply.
Instagram: @123dortiz
Lee Steele is the founding director of Mérida-based Roof Cat Media S de RL de CV and has published Yucatán Magazine and other titles since 2012. He was Hearst Connecticut’s Sunday Magazine creative director and worked in New York City for various magazine publishers, including Condé Nast and Primedia, for over 20 years.
