Ponce, Humberto

Humberto Ponce Avalos and his wife, Blanca Noelia Almeida de Ponce, are a husband-and-wife team of potters from the village of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico. As is usual among pottery-making couples, she forms, sands and polishes while he paints and fires.

Humberto and Blanca learned how to make pots from Blanca’s sister, Gabriela, and her husband, Cesar Dominguez. At the time they were all living in Mata Ortiz but later, both families moved to Nuevo Casas Grandes and Cesar and Humberto took jobs as primary school teachers.

Humberto likes to paint Paquimé Revival designs but is most famous for his polychrome cuadrillo motifs. Lazaro Ponce is his brother.