Biography
Maceo Montoya grew up in the small town of Elmira, California. He comes from a family of artists, including his father Malaquias Montoya, a renowned artist, activist, and educator, and his late brother, Andrés Montoya, whose poetry collection “The Iceworker Sings” won the American Book Award in 2000.
Montoya graduated from Yale University in 2002 where he majored in History and Ethnicity Race & Migration. He also received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Visual Arts from Columbia University in 2006. He has completed several public art commissions, including murals with the Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland and Taller Arte Del Nuevo Amenecer (TANA) in Woodland, California, where he has worked as an instructor.
In addition to several solo exhibitions, Montoya’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Caras Vemos, Corazones No Sabemos: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migration to the United States, which has traveled to museums throughout the country, and Inter-viewing Paintings, a survey of contemporary Eastern and Western painters at the SOMA Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea.
He presently lives in Woodland, California where he paints and writes. His first novel, The Scoundrel and the Optimist, is available now from Bilingual Review Press.
Exhibitions
La Inmensidad/Immensity, Davis Community Gallery, Davis, CA 2010
Latino Art: A Cultural Legacy, Malaquias and Maceo Montoya, Art Space Gallery 2009
Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, CA
Alameda Museum: Caras Vemos, Corazones no Sabemos: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migration to the United States 2009
San Antonio, TX
“Lost In Your Eyes” FormContent and Neiman Gallery 2008-2009
London, England and New York, NY, Group Exhibition
“What Is This Thing Called Love” La Raza Galeria Posada 2009
Curated by Juan Carillo, Sacramento, CA
Ceja Vineyard’s “A History of Wine” Unveiling 2009
Napa, CA
Fowler Museum: Caras Vemos, Corazones no Sabemos: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migration to the United States 2008
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Mexic-Arte Museum: Serie Project Quinceañera 2008
Austin, TX
Humanigration: The Cárdenas Latino Collection 2008
Purdue University Galleries, West Lafayette, IN
Maceo Montoya: Retratos y Cuentos 2008
Institute for Latino Studies, Galería América, Notre Dame, IN
Movidas y Movimientos 2008
Carlos Jackson, Xico Gonzalez, and Maceo Montoya
Arte Américas Centro Cultural, Fresno, CA
Paisajes: The Journey of Juan José 2008
Notre Dame Main Building, Notre Dame, IN
Haggerty Museum of Art: Caras Vemos, Corazones no Sabemos: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migration to the United States 2008Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Inter-viewing Paintings, SOMA Museum of Art 2008
Seoul, Korea
Mexican American Cultural Center: Retratos y Cuentos 2008
Austin, TX
Ceja Vineyard Tasting Salon: Solo Exhibition 2008 Napa, CA
Maceo Montoya: Retratos y Cuentos 2007
La Peña Gallery, Austin, TX
Sacred Memory: Honoring the Dead Across Cultures 2007
Pico House Gallery at El Pueblo Historical Monument
Los Angeles, CA
Los Primos, Tomas and Maceo Montoya 2007
La Raza Galeria Posada, Sacramento, CA
Contenido Neto, El Paso, TX 2007
Red Poppy Art House 2007
Mission Arts and Performance Project, San Francisco, CA
Vanguard Arts: Art Off the Main 2006
Curated by Lateef Way, New York, NY
Snite Museum: Caras Vemos, Corazones No Sabemos 2006
Notre Dame, IN
Curated by Amelia Malagamba
Stefan Stux Gallery: Six Degrees of Separation 2 2006
New York, NY
Curated by Joshua Altman
Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition 2006
Curated by Jenny Moore
Columbia First Year MFA Exhibition 2005
Curated by Jeffrey Uslip, Miriam and Ira Wallach Gallery
Columbia School of the Arts Panopoly 2004
Knights Landing Health Clinic Opening 2003
Exhibit with photographer Francisco Dominguez
Ritmo de Hoy, Rhythm of Today, Group Exhibition 2002 Sacramento, CA
La Raza Galeria Posada
A New Generation 2002
Emerging Chicano and Latino Artists, Mission Cultural Center
San Francisco, CA
Maceo Montoya, Solo Exhibit 2001
La Raza Galeria Posada, Sacramento, CA
Dos Primos en Guanajuato: Maceo and Tomas Montoya 2001
Asian Resource Gallery, Oakland, CA
A Portrait of Guanajuato: The Artwork of Maceo Montoya 2000
Yale University, La Casa Cultural Center