American artist Malaquias Montoya is a leading figure in the West Coast political Chicano graphics art movement; he creates socially conscious art in the form of paintings and mass-produced silk-screened posters. Following in this tradition of art as protest, Montoya has created a series of twenty-three works that explore and condemn the death penalty and the policies of America's penal institutions. Montoya states: "We have perfected the art of institutional killings to the degree that it has deadened our national, quintessentially human, response to death. I want to produce a body of work depicting the horror of this act."
This project was conceived during the presidential election of 2000; President George W. Bush was then governor of Texas and the media focused its attention on the state's capital punishment practices. Montoya continued to ponder on this issue while working on a poster design for the Mumia 911 day. These experiences inspired him to express his opinions and objection to the death penalty. Montoya asks: "Why do we kill, what happens to our humanity and to us, as a culture?"
Montoya's powerful images are rooted in the tradition of the Taller de Grafica Popular, a group of Mexican printmakers that worked during the 1920s, 30s and 40s, when Mexico was forging its national identity following the Mexican Revolution. Like the Mexican muralists, the artists of the Taller, used their art to express the need for social and political reform for the Mexican underprivileged. In some instances, Montoya combines his expressive vision with text to better communicate his message.
Malaquias Montoya's artist website
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