José Luis Montes

Concern for nature and the space we inhabit has been a constant on a personal level and as such has been reflected in many of my works over time. I am currently focusing my work on women; the woman as a symbol of strength and tenacity and also as a guardian and connoisseur of the cycles of nature and I am painting her along with floral and animal elements that show her coexisting with nature. I use this, on the one hand, to draw attention to the fact that there is less and less nature to interact with, and on the other hand, as a reminder that we have to listen to the rest of the beings in nature, because we are not independent. from it and we cannot sustain ourselves outside of it, we need to understand that we are one and the same and that is what I intend to convey with my work, that people stop a little to think about how we are destroying the habitat of the macaws or how we are taking our diet towards the absurd, for example. I also like to use everyday elements to form and assemble the work as an allegory, guiding the observer into the interior of the painting, so that from there they themselves can discover their interpretation or can start a conversation with the work.

Individual expositions Natural environment, feminine principle”, Alacrán Gallery, Cholula, Mexico, Jan 2023 “Equestrian and Marine” Centro Seis, Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, Mexico, Dec 2019 "Luz de Luna” Plaza Pedregal, Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, Mexico, Jan 2019 “Luz de Luna”, La Revoltosa, Gijón, Spain, May 2018 “Dreams of Colors” Mieres House of Culture, Asturias, Spain 2017 “Moving” Tulum Culture House, Quintana Roo, Mexico 2007 “Saint Michael the Archangel, Warrior of Light” Los Sapos, Puebla, Mexico August 2003 Hotel Fiesta Americana, Puebla, Mexico. Year 1997 House of the Eagle Knight, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. Year 1997 Santa Rosa Museum, Puebla, Mexico, year 1995 Cholula House of Culture, Puebla, Mexico, 1993 Artist's Neighborhood, Puebla, Mexico Year 1991 Group exhibitions "For the love of Puebla" Senate of the Republic, CDMX, Mexico, April 2023 “Green Wings Flying in Freedom” Puebla, Mexico, Jun 2022 “Stripping away normality” Sala Marte, México, CDMX, Sept 2021 “Painting in Wonderland” Rulfo Gallery, Tequisquiapan, Querétaro, Mexico May 2019 Eka & Moor Gallery, Madrid, 2016, Spain Tulum House of Culture, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Year 2014 Participation in the Caribbean Festival, Quintana Roo, Mexico, 2013 Eco Glamor Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Year 2010

I began painting self-taught at the age of 12, after a chance encounter with a country painter whom I harassed with questions until he ran away from me. Later I had the fortune of being a disciple of Master Eduardo Villanueva in the workshop he had in the Barrio del Artista, in Puebla (Mexico) and where later and at his request I had the opportunity to hold my first exhibition. I have also taken courses occasionally, with Carlos Luna, I remember, but in general I am still a self-taught painter and although I did have a period in which this gave me a tremendous complex, I no longer pay much attention to it, said my Master Eduardo "The painter becomes painting" and although it was difficult for me to assimilate it, I now fully agree with that phrase.