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Santiago Montoya 5 Things to Know Santiago Montoya 5 Things to Know

Santiago Montoya

5 Things to Know
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Santiago Montoya is a contemporary Colombian artist who lives and works between Miami, USA and Bogotá, Colombia. Montoya’s practice employs diverse media, with his medium of choice being paper currency and, more recently, chocolate. His multi-disciplinary approach explores our perception of value historically and in modern society. 

Below, discover 5 Things to Know about Santiago Montoya. 

 If you are interested in adding to your collection, speak to one of our art consultants now - email us at info@halcyongallery.com

1. Santiago Montoya uses currency as both artistic inspiration and medium
Santiago Montoya, Laborers, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 69 x 69 cm & Santiago Montoya, The Happy People, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 69 x 69 cm

1. Santiago Montoya uses currency as both artistic inspiration and medium

 So, here it is, I give you the instruments of my experience, my life, my sin: I have painted – Santiago Montoya

Santiago Montoya is a multidisciplinary Colombian artist, living and working in Miami, USA. He is most widely known for his practical investigations: folding, bleaching and manipulating paper currency, though his oeuvre extends beyond these confines into neon works, aluminium sculpture and even jacquard tapestry. In most cases, there is an underlying motivation to explore how the perception of value changes across national borders and time.
 
Montoya frequently incorporates painterly practice, even alongside his manipulative experiments, in both formal and abstract capacities. Car with Antenna (2012) directly references intricate banknote geometry with its concentric circle motif overlaying a car. These subtle inferences speak to the underlying symbolism contained within our everyday – a narrative that pervades Montoya’s oeuvre. The Happy People (2009) and Laborers (2009), encompass the artist’s medium-duality. Through the intricate use of line, subject matter and geometric compositions, Montoya playfully engages with the coded iconography of banknotes, despite the absence of physical currency.
 
As Montoya’s artistic journey has evolved, his repertoire primarily centres around the physical manipulation of paper money. Interested in the ready-made nature of banknotes, and the social and political implications of different currencies, Montoya employs the medium to critique the wealth and riches of countries, in contrast to the futility of currency once manipulated. In his essay ‘Financial Sublime(s)’, José Luis Falconi highlights the unique ways Montoya defines his medium-specific practice, pushing for the novel transformation of the medium ‘sometimes to the point of its own exhaustion’.
2. Montoya鈥檚 artwork merges aesthetic beauty with thought-provoking commentary
Santiago Montoya, 25% Cotton, 75% Linen, 2012. Reprocessed paper money, 100 x 100 x 100 cm

2. Montoya鈥檚 artwork merges aesthetic beauty with thought-provoking commentary

His choice of medium often carries social or political commentary, acting as facilitator for his narratives. Money, for example, has wavering connotations to each receiver. For the artist, ‘bills function as small paintings that dispense a message.’ As is true of most banknotes, they encase tiny historical image narratives on each face. Montoya collects from every corner of the world, speaking to wider histories of globalisation while mapping an interesting visual lexicon. On the surface, it could be misconstrued that Montoya’s works are all about money, capitalisation and wealth.


Though they owe some narrative to this, Falconi argues that ‘the work’s poignancy derives from the way in which Montoya has been able to summon his peripheral vantage point to transform a very particular cultural trait of Latin America, into a powerful interrogative tool.' The cultural trait Falconi references is the lettered legal order that has its roots in Spanish colonial legacy in Colombia. It refers to the country’s enduring legacy of written legal documents and the importance of scripture in the governance of the region. In his use of paper currency, he dually comments on paper’s engrained importance, and how imbued money is to this narrative.


Montoya employs this legacy across many of his works, using paper currency to speak to the flaws of this tradition. 25% Cotton, 75% Linen, (2012) constitutes a bleached stack of banknotes. This work assumes a white mass, with no reference to its original value; as such, Montoya’s work mocks the concept of inherent value in paper currency, highlighting the inherent fragility of the economic order.

3. His work is a celebration of artisanal practice
Santiago Montoya, Names in the Sand, 2024. Glass with gold and sand sediment, various sizes

3. His work is a celebration of artisanal practice

 Montoya’s practice relies on the skill and dedication of many artisans. His most recent series, Names in the Sand (2024), features hand-blown hourglasses containing sand and gold sediment from the Cauca (Antioquia), Marmato (Caldas), Quebrada La Valeria (Caldas) and Quindío (Quindío) rivers in Colombia. This series celebrates artisanal craftsmanship twofold, not only in the intricate glass-blowing technique, but in the laboured mining of the sediment that is central to the work’s meaning. Montoya speaks fondly of his first interest in gold panning – the act of sifting riverbeds for sediment that lay within it – that stemmed from his ability to hear artisans working on the river from his family home. Gold panning is a low-cost mining technique that involves cleaning the alluvial deposit from the riverbed with a sieve-like pan to reveal any precious sediment that lies within it.


The process is laborious and does not yield much material; for one work it can take several years to complete. These artisans immerse themselves in the cold waters of the river for eight to ten hours per day, washing the sand continuously to collect deposits of gold at the end. This work celebrates the riches of Colombia’s land and the historic trade of the artisans he employs. The process refers to the monetisation of the land – one that was so heavily reaped and taken advantage of by the western world, particularly during Spanish rule.

4. He has developed a coded visual language
Santiago Montoya
United , 2013
Acrylic and paper money and stainless steel
95 x 169 x 10.5 cm

4. He has developed a coded visual language

Montoya’s visual language is coded, often combining imagery with words. Using the pre-existing iconography of banknotes, Montoya incorporates intricate folds to reveal new compositions, with the aim of imbuing his artworks with meaning beyond the medium.

In other instances, he overwrites his compositions with words. Works read: ‘united’, ‘promise’, ‘lucky’ in conjunction with others that read ‘SOS’ ‘fly away’ or ‘so be it’ denoting the polarity in money’s reception and worth. The former words exemplify the hope and opportunity that money can bring, while works such as SOS [triptych] (2012) and More (2013) examine greed simultaneously with absurdity.

Montoya uses currency to map words as if advertisements or billboards, once again making the money futile and using it only for artistic outcome. These works and their inclusion of typography can be compared to Jenny Holzer, renowned contemporary artist celebrated for her innovative use of signage to explore the interplay of light and word.

Her work often features provocative and thought-provoking text displayed on electric billboards, LED signs and projections of buildings; she transforms public spaces into canvases for her messages. Similarly, Montoya employs provocative medium to elicit personal response with his canvases. In transposing word over the material, he offers further reading that confronts social, political and personal issues.

5. His work encompasses a variety of artistic influences
Santiago Montoya
Yellow Flowers , 2012
Paper money on stainless steel
120.2 cm x 94.2 cm

5. His work encompasses a variety of artistic influences

I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you the first thing, they would see is money on the wallAndy Warhol
 

Santiago Montoya's work clearly draws inspiration from Pop and conceptual art. His use of repeated images and capitalist materials is strongly influenced by Andy Warhol, while his works featuring ambiguous words or phrases echo the styles of Pop artists Ed Ruscha and Robert Indiana. Warhol’s assertion: ‘I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall,’ encapsulates his fascination with financial themes, often reflected in his works such as the Dollar Sign series (1981). This fascination resonates with Montoya’s approach, which also centres on the visual and symbolic power of currency.

Montoya’s piece Yellow Flowers (2012) emulates Warhol’s thematic exploration of money and even assumes its iconography. Like Warhol, Montoya seeks to subvert and reinvent the motif of consumer culture and capitalism via vivid colours and striking design. He ironically constructs the dollar symbol out of money itself, using the intricate colours of various banknotes to make the composition visually compelling. Montoya’s work continues the legacy of Pop art by critically engaging with the symbols of capitalism, blending aesthetic appeal with thought-provoking commentary.

 

If you are interested in adding to your collection, speak to one of our art consultants now - email us at info@halcyongallery.com

 
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