Clara Montoya

Clara Montoya - Your Amazon

Biografía del Artista: Clara Montoya is an artist from Madrid who has stood out for her multidisciplinary work that is characterized by a minimalist and conceptual aesthetic. Her training is international, having studied at the Royal College of Art in London, at the Cité Internationnale des Arts in Paris, at The Cooper Union in New York and finally at Chelsea College of Art in London. Her work moves across a variety of media, such as painting, sculpture, photography and video, always with a strong presence of geometry and the use of simple shapes and clean lines. Montoya has been influenced by minimalist art and her work focuses on the search for essence and simplicity, attempting to convey the feeling that everything that is unnecessary has been eliminated. In her works, one can see elements that at first glance may seem like simple geometric shapes, but upon closer inspection, they take on a deeper meaning. In addition, her work is also reflective and often has a social and political undertone, dealing with issues such as identity, exclusion and gender. Regarding her creative process, Montoya usually works in series, exploring a particular theme or idea in depth. She often uses industrial materials and modern technology in her work, although she has also worked with traditional techniques such as engraving. Clara Montoya's work has been exhibited in various galleries and museums, both in Spain and abroad, and she has been awarded various prizes and recognitions for her work. With her refined and conceptual style, Montoya is an artist who never ceases to surprise and captivate her audience with her ability to convey great ideas through simple forms.

YOU In the restoration workshops of the Vatican Museums, a large group of people work on works that are hundreds of years old. Clara Montoya has been visiting these spaces and getting to know the restoration team's ways of doing things and thinking up close. Among many other pieces They have in their collection a god called YOU, from the Gambier Islands archipelago and sculpted in the 18th century in wood with four legs and no arms (removed). The pieces that go through this process, like YOU, which gives its name to this series of sculptures, become elements of communication between artists of the past and professionals of the present. In them, the restorers read the signs and gestures of the authors of another era, and in some cases, on the surface of the old sculptures, they even manage to locate the handprints of the original authors. A link is thus established between art workers from different eras. Clara Montoya has focused on these processes and how materials are deteriorate and are restored and how communities of people are generated around these mechanisms to create a set of sculptures in which which combines materials that are half destroyed or half restored. A limbo in which the time of the sculpture remains indefinite, in which the surfaces do not allow us to understand whether they have lost their forms or are still waiting to be carved.