He was born in 1923 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. He died in the same city in 2001.

In 1945 he quit studying Medicine in order to dedicate himself to painting. He developed significant relations with sculptor Nicolás Antonio de San Luis and painter Leónidas Gambartes. During 1948 and 1949 he attended composition classes with Ricardo Sívori. The following year, he traveled to Europe with his wife, Dorita Schwieters, and forged a bond with writer Julio Cortázar. He also came into contact with ceramics, and witnessed the birth and spreading of the new forms of abstraction.

In 1951 he returned to Argentina and settled in Buenos Aires, where he worked for the publishing house Abril, and continued his training in ceramics. At the end of that year, he moved to Rosario, where he engaged in an intense activity during the emergence of abstract art, projecting towards other cities through solo and group exhibitions in galleries, institutions and museums. Simultaneously, he became interested in the introduction of time within the plastic image, and produced several short films.

In 1956 he undertook academic and research works at the National University of the Litoral, focusing on industrial design and cultural management. In 1958 he was appointed Head of the Fine Arts Department in Santa Fe Province, and Head of the Rosa Galisteo de Rodríguez Fine Arts Museum.

Despite continuing his creative activity until his passing, from the late 50s he did not participate in exhibitions, until he was invited by Rubén de la Colina in 1981 to participate as Guest Artist in the XV Annual Salon of Artists from Rosario, at Castagnino Fine Arts Museum.

In 2011 some of his works were displayed in ‘La diversidad de lo moderno. Arte de Rosario en los años cincuenta’, a group exhibition in OSDE Foundation Art Space. In 2019, Diego Obligado Art Gallery presented ‘Los días van. Obras de Jorge Vila Ortiz’, a retrospective curated by Guillermo Fantoni, which evoked his relation with Julio Cortázar.