Bugarini, Laura

Mata Ortiz potters Juan Quezada Sr and Laura Bugarini
Working with clay since she was 14, Laura Bugarini Cota has become one of the most successful potters in Mata Ortiz. She became interested in learning to make pottery during the time she worked in the home of Juan Quezada Sr as a housekeeper. It was there that she witnessed the financial stability that making pottery could bring.

Under the tutelage of her mother, Lupe Cota, Laura learned to make pots. Laura’s cousin, an older and more experienced potter named Gerardo Cota Guillen, gave her pointers on how to paint them. Gerardo had learned from Juan Quezada Sr. himself. He taught Laura to paint Mimbres-Mogollon Revival designs, just like everyone else in Mata Ortiz was painting at the time.

That’s when Laura stepped well outside the Quezada style Gerardo taught and developed a style all her own based on tiny multi-color strokes and dots. Sometimes those strokes and dots are contained within horizontal bands and sometimes they are contained within a hodge-podge of larger geometric designs.

Once Gerardo saw what Laura was creating, he began promoting her work at events and to dealers he was acquainted with. By the time she was 17, she had catapulted to near the top of the Mata Ortiz list of money earners.

Laura was the first potter in Mata Ortiz to offer stands painted to match the designs on her pots. Since becoming successful, her styles and designs have been adopted by other potters in Mata Ortiz, a process that pushes her design talents and her creations further and further every year.

Laura taught her younger sister, Elvira Bugarini Cota, to make pottery and decorate it similarly to her own. A few years later, she had a hand in teaching their younger half-sisters, Luz Angelica Lopez Cota and Karla Lopez Cota, how to make pottery, too. But Luz Angelica and Karla usually make pots with sgraffito-and-painted bird and branch designs.

Laura is married to potter Hector Gallegos Jr. and they now often collaborate on their pieces. They have taught the art to their daughter Paula, too.

Some of the Awards Laura has Earned

  • 2006 Second Place miniatures category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2007 First Place polychrome white category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2008 Excellence Award, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2009 First Place polychrome white category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz</li.
  • 2009 First Place miniatures category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2011 First Place miniatures category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2011 First Place in the sgraffito category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2013 Award for Excellence, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2013 First Place in the Premio Nacional Concurso de Ceramica in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
  • 2014 First Place in the polychrome white category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2015 First Place in the sgraffito category, Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2015 First Place in the National Grand Prize of Popular Art in Mexico City
  • In 2015, Laura was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Northwest of the State of Chihuahua
  • 2016 Chihuahuan Women’s Award in the Arts category
  • 2016 Galardon Prize (Best in Show), Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz
  • 2018 Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz, Second Place prize for a sgraffito design
  • 2019 Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz, First Place ribbon for a white polychrome jar
  • 2020 Concurso Ceramica de Mata Ortiz, Second Place ribbon for a non-traditional color, with or without design
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