Artist Statement
As a first-generation immigrant from Colombia, I visually communicate the Latine experience, archiving the cultural ephemera that centers around my identity. Through printmaking, sculpture, and drawing, I push the boundaries between the media to create multi-layered compositions that reveal fleeting familial and cultural history.
I create archetypes that take the form of plants or culturally specific icons to metaphysically reference the human body. I often reimagine the body as enredaderas (a climbing plant), or ruanas (ponchos), to find conceptual parallels to the Colombian diaspora. I am curious about rooting/uprooting these archetypes from their homes, and the impact that has across the diaspora. The immigrant experience is complex, and I tend to ask questions such as: Can the body exist without it being visible? Can it form a relationship with the land it is rooted to or uprooted from? Can it extend and reach the grounds from which they migrated?
Artist Bio
Bryan Montenegro is an interdisciplinary artist who visually communicates the Latine experience and archives the cultural ephemera that centers around being a first-generation immigrant from Colombia. He employs printmaking, sculpture, and drawing techniques to create multi-layered compositions that reveal their fleeting familial and cultural history, narrating the complexities of the Latine experience. Bryan recently graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts with a concentration in drawing and taught at the Zimmerli Museum. He is a resident at Guttenberg Arts, and their artwork has been showcased at the Newark Arts Festival in the Newark Museum, the IceBox Project Space, the Mason Gross Gallery, the Bowery Art Collective, and Artistonish art magazine.
