Malaquias Montoya

Voice for the Voiceless

• Exhibition: October 22–December 18, 2018
• Reception: Monday, December 10 at 6:00 pm
• Artist talk at 6:30 pm

Artist Biography

Malaquias Montoya was born in 1938 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in California's San Joaquin Valley. Montoya graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969. Since then, he has lectured and taught at numerous colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay Area including Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1989, Montoya has held a professorship at the University of California, Davis, teaching both in the Department of Art and the Department of Chicana/o Studies. A professor emeritus since 2008, Montoya's classes at Davis included the silkscreen workshop, community muralism, and survey courses focusing on Chicano culture and history. 

His own works include acrylic paintings, murals, washes, and drawings, but he is primarily known for his silkscreen prints, which have been exhibited around the world. He is credited by historians as one of the founders of the social serigraphy movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1960's. Montoya's unique visual expression is an art of protest, depicting the resistance and strength of humanity in the face of injustice and the necessity to unite behind that struggle.

Artist Statement

It is important to note that my other "voice" is the poster/mural. I am much more articulate and able to express myself more eloquently through this medium. It is with this voice that I attempt to communicate, reach out and touch others, especially to that silent and often ignored populace of Chicano, Mexican and Central American working class, along with other disenfranchised people of the world. This form allows me to awaken consciousness, to reveal reality and to actively work to transform it. What better function for art at this time? A voice for the voiceless.