about me
about me
“In her painting practice, Arianna investigates perception, memory, and the inevitable distortions that time and emotion introduce. Her use of color is central—bold, playful, and unexpected—while the layering of strokes remains deliberate and thoughtful. Through this approach, she explores the shifting boundaries between recollection and reinterpretation.”
-María José Barquero, Art Journalist
Arianna Montoya (b. 1998, San José, Costa Rica) is a self-taught oil painter whose work examines how images construct memory, time, and social meaning. Working from archival and found imagery, she translates photographic material into painting to expose the structures embedded within them, particularly around gender, labor, and Latin American contexts.
Painting remains the central axis of her practice, which she expands through material explorations, including ceramics approached from a painterly perspective. Her work moves between figuration and abstraction, often using reduced palettes and soft tonal contrasts to create atmospheres where presence and disappearance coexist. Informed by her background in communications and advertising, Montoya approaches images as constructed rather than neutral, using painting to destabilize their authority through processes of blurring, omission, and material transformation. Recent work engages with the aging and degradation of images, treating damage and erasure as active forces that reshape visibility and meaning.
Montoya is currently based in London and is pursuing an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.
“From a curatorial perspective, Arianna Montoya’s work is a visual alchemy—where color is not merely a medium, but a language through which she deconstructs and transforms reality. Through delicate overlays and infinite layers of oil paint, her work creates subtle yet profound distortions, inviting the viewer to question perception and delve into the fluidity of memory and identity.”
— Martha Palacio, Art Curator