Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya
Citlali_chimuela2.0 + My Socks and Delfina Hang There + Trenza, 2020, horn tips, bed sheets from a twin bed, my uncles ostrich boots and belt, zip ties, goat leg, apple mouse, cow pelt, fiber fill, trash, steel rod, silicone, owl feather, yellow twine found in the rummage of illegal desert dumping in New Mexico, dimensions variable
44R (detail), 2020, green cleaning cloth, green brooms, cow horns, my white socks and t-shirt, mariachi sombrero, zip ties, circuit board, copper wire, metal car piece I found on the road when I had to walk to get my truck cause it got towed, stop saw break cartridge, silicone, loofa, sequins, dimensions variable
44R, 2020, green cleaning cloth, green brooms, cow horns, my white socks and t-shirt, mariachi sombrero, zip ties, circuit board, copper wire, metal car piece I found on the road when I had to walk to get my truck cause it got towed, stop saw break cartridge, silicone, loofa, sequins, dimensions variable
Araceli23220, 2020, mariachi sombreros, cow horn, horn tips, black boots, white t-shirt, white socks, cow hide, thread, silicone, twine, lint, poly-fil, trash, 42 x 20 x 18 inches
Sopa de Ostión, 2020, mariachi sombrero, white polo, toothpaste cap, vaping cartridge, topochico cap, hair, black bean silicone molds, silicone, 25 x 15 x 8 inches
Antifreeze/Jade, 2020, boots, bull horns, horn tips, white t-shirt, goat leg, cow felt, silicone, 44 x 15 x 6 inches
Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya (b. 1989, Parral. Chihuahua, Mexico) graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media in 2020. Montoya’s works are a fantastic becoming that center around anthologies and social issues concerning border culture, abjection, and mestizaje. Aided by magical realism, nahualismo, Sci-Fi, and the labor of his family, his work hybridizes and creates parallels between land, human, and animal as a way to investigate the process in which violence eradicates, erases, and erodes communities of color. He has recently exhibited at the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Murmurs, Los Angeles, CA; Tuscon Museum of Contemporary Art, Tuscon, AZ; Residency Art Gallery, Inglewood, CA; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Company Gallery, New York, NY; and Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY. His work has been reviewed in artnet news, The New York Times, Hyperallergic and Contemporary Art Review LA. He is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.
Exhibitions
James Webb and the Thestral Born Without A Vertebrae
My Uncle's Straw Hats Hanging By the Shed
Inside the Bowels of the Hoofed Beast
News
Frieze LA, Booth F10, Murmurs LA, Los Angeles, CA | February 16 – 19, 2023
Durian on the Skin, François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA | September 17 – October 29, 2022
Outburst Project, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA | August 4, 2022 – January 29, 2023
Barely Fair with Murmurs, Chicago, IL | April 8 – 24, 2022
Artist Talk at UCLA Margo Leavin Graduate Studios, Los Angeles, CA | November 5, 2021 at 5pm
Contemporary Art Review LA | September 15, 2021
Hyperallergic | August 10, 2021
Ex Situ Canis Latrans, Murmurs, Los Angeles, CA | August 15 - September 26, 2021
100 Sculptures - New York, Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY | June 30 – August 21, 2021
Senses of Brown, curated by César García-Alvarez, Armory Access: Curated (online exhibition), The Armory Show | June 3 – June 13, 2021
Artist Talk at Boffo Residency, Whyte Hall, Fire Island, NY | June 7, 2021
Graphite XII (2021) | Graphite Journal at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA | May 2021 Issue
Artishock | September 29, 2020
The New York Times | September 22, 2020