Quezada is from a poor rural town in Chihuahua, who discovered and studied pre Hispanic pottery of the Mimbres and Casas Grandes cultures.
These brought the pottery to shops on the U.S. side of the border, where they were discovered by Spencer MacCallum, an anthropologist who tracked Quezada down and helped him break into the larger U.S. market.
Quezada’s success in pottery sparked interest in the activity by others in the town and he responded by teaching family and friends.
Quezada’s work has been displayed in museums in various countries and in 1999 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes.
[5][6] He experimented with painting all kinds of surfaces such as wood, paper and even the walls of his house, filling those until his mother would make him clean them to start over again.
He walked to a town called Palomas, on the border of New Mexico, where he found a shopkeeper who liked his work so much, he bought all Quezada had.
[5] It was in the border town of Deming, New Mexico where an American anthropologist named Spencer MacCallum found one of Quezada’s pots in 1976.
[8] MacCallum provided contacts, sales experience and more to gain access to markets by showing pieces to museum curators, academics, gallery owners and others.
[7] Quezada’s works now sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the United States, and is regularly exhibited in Arizona, California and New Mexico.
[6] He continues to give occasional classes in the United States and has received offers of long term employment there, but has declined to move away from his hometown.
[2][5] His work has been covered in various books, doctoral thesis and periodicals and can be found in major museums in the United States, Europe and Japan.
[2][5] In 1998, the state of Chihuahua recognized his work with a plaque, which was followed in 1999 by the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes.
[7] The father of eight children, his manner and dress are typical of Mexican northerners, with cowboy boots, hat and distinctive accent.
[10] Quezada states that every pot he makes “speaks to him differently.”[6] Although Juan considers the Mimbres tradition as part of his heritage, which pottery work follows that of Casas Grandes.
[8] Quezada’s pottery takes on a variety of forms, including low, open bowls he called cazuelas.
[1][7] A number of his brothers and sisters have become master potters in their own right such as Nicholas, Reynaldo and Lydia, along with Consolación, Reynalda, Rosa, Jesús and Genoveva.
[7] The range of styles varies from almost faithful reproduction of the old designs to stylized realism or purely geometric motifs.
[10] One reason for the continued success of Mata Ortiz pottery is that from the beginning Quezada emphasized quality and artistry, which are still important to all the potters that follow.