Guillermo Ríos Alcalá

Guillermo Ríos Alcalá is a Mexican potter, restoration expert and educator from the state of Colima.

He was born in Chapala, Jalisco to Felipe Ríos and María Guadalupe Alcalá, but moved to the city of Colima in 1957. His grandfather, Jesús Becerra, was a potter, making pieces for personal use only. As a child, Ríos Alcalá played with balls of clay but had no real inclination towards pottery, but his father made him learn. His father was a farmer, who found pre Hispanic pieces while working in the fields. The artisan experimented with the broken ones, developing ways to restore them. This led to work with the University of Colima on restoration projects when he was only eighteen. Since then, he has established a permanent workshop at the Museo Universitario de Artes Populares María Teresa Pomar at the university, restoring pieces, making reproductions and giving workshops on pre Hispanic ceramics. Ríos Alcalá created a monumental version of this piece which stands at a traffic circle in the city of Colima, on the highway to Comala.

He is married with seven children, but none are potters.

Ríos Alcalá has received recognition for his work since 1966 in the way of prizes and diplomas. He was named a “Great Master of Popular Art” by the Fomento Cultural Banamex in 2001. The Museo Universitario de Arte Popular Teresa Pomar held a retrospective of his work in 2010.