artist bio

A business and community leader for over thirty years, Mr. Montoya brings an entrepreneurial spirit to all his endeavors. A California native, Mr. Montoya recently moved to the Milwaukee area after living in Chicagoland since 2007.
Son of famed activist Chicano art movement founder and college art professor, Jose Montoya, Mal was born and raised in Northern California where he was frequently on the front lines of significant social change issues including the United Farm Workers' and Cesar Chavez's grape boycotts in the late sixties and seventies. Learning first-hand the value of social and political change through art, he assisted his dad in creating posters to announce and support rallies, and picket signs that would be carried by fellow marchers and activists. Reflecting upon his youth, the significance of the art world on his development was impactful. He spent his formative years, making frames for his Dad's artwork, or assisting him as he taught art classes to under-privileged youths in inner city community centers.
His deep desire to assist underserved communities led him to create one of the first Hispanic owned marketing, advertising, and public relations firms in California in the late 1980's. His firm focused on bringing critical basic services information, including economic, health and transportation issues, to various Spanish speaking communities.
Today, Mal remains active as a photographer and graphic artist who continues to stay connected to the art world that was instrumental to his youth. After the passing of his Father, he proudly worked closely with his family to curate some of his Father's collection of drawings, paintings, and writings. This tremendous work culminated in a show of 2,000+ hand-picked original works by his Father on display at a special exhibit at the Fowler Museum of Art at UCLA. This collection is set to tour the United States in the upcoming months and years. He is also personally overseeing the archival and reproduction of select works of his Father's in his personal Greenfield studio. Mal has developed a process for producing high resolution digital files that can be reproduced in his large format digital printing studio. Understanding that reproduction and printing must always be a collaboration with the artist, Mal calls upon his Father's direction every time he is in his studio.