Artwork – Duvian Montoya

Description

The artwork of Easton-based painter and muralist Duvian Montoya can be found in public spaces in New Haven and throughout Norwalk, on permanent display at the SONO Collection, and among the art collections of Disney, the Albuquerque real estate corporation Gulfstream Worldwide, The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, and Housatonic Community College.

More than 20 of Montoya’s paintings and monotypes are on display and for sale at Greiser’s through April 30, 2022. 

A Norwalk native, Montoya studied fine art at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. After graduation, he restored antique lithographs for museums, galleries and collectors around the world; studied the Old Masters’ techniques in Europe; and established a gallery exhibiting New Mexican contemporary artists in Santa Fe before returning to Connecticut. After spending five years converting an historic Georgian-style mansion in Norwalk into the St. Phillip’s Artist Guild gallery and studio space, he moved with his wife Emma Montoya to Easton in 2011.

Montoya was also founder of The Artists Collective of Westport in 2014, founding director of the Peanut Gallery in Santa Fe, assistant curator at General Electric worldwide headquarters in Fairfield, and Studio Manager of world-renowned realist painter Robert Cottingham.

Presently, he is serving as Artistic and Educational Director at The Norwalk Art Space, which offers free art education to underserved high school students and a premier space for regional artist exhibitions and programs.

Montoya’s philosophy is to paint the stories of our present lives the way our ancestors did in caves 10,000 years ago for future generations to build on.

“By studying our visual history, we can see our evolution and strive for a better tomorrow through a sophisticated visual language,” Montoya says. His gallery work and public installations give context to humanity’s current struggles, achievements, and aspirations. This is especially true of murals in South Norwalk train station where he used the language of fashion to represent decades of transitory history in Norwalk and a mural at the Norwalk Public Library that shares Montoya’s parents’ story of migration from Colombia, South America, to Norwalk by using architecture and design as his visual transitions from country to country.

Montoya says he most enjoys creating a narrative that connects generations of people through symbols, color, texture, and shared visual cues. His recent work has spoken to the need for human connection in a time of social distancing and isolation. Other works depict individual meditative moments, architecture and its function as a cultural reference to its people and place, and the need to stand united against injustice toward our black and brown brothers and sisters.