Montoya & Ortiz Retrospective; KAWS to Present at at the Royal College of Art in London

For nearly thirty years, Luis Montoya and Leslie Ortiz have combined their talents and skills to create original and fantastic sculptures.

 

 

The works of Montoya & Ortiz were recently showcased in a retrospective at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, where both artists have been involved in furthering art education in the community.

 

Luis Montoya established the first fine art foundry in South Florida, along with a sculpture supply store. He developed the Sculpture Department at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach and taught there for many years.

 

In 1985, Leslie Ortiz answered an ad that Montoya had placed, saying that he was looking for someone to work with him in the foundry. They worked together in the foundry for nearly a decade and, in 1994, began to collaborate.

 

Together they have created both large-scale and small sculptures, as well as paintings, often focused on food, that are masterful, humorous and often surreal.

 

Their works can be found in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain, the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid, the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Art in Racine, Wisconsin and other fine venues.

 

They have created special commissions for both local venues, like the Palm Beach International Airport and international venues, including the Tokyo/Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

 

They are represented in Palm Beach by Surovek Gallery.

 

---

 

 Brian Donnelly (aka KAWS) is scheduled to be one of the guest presenters at the Royal College of Art in London this summer. Present Futures: Virtual and Augmented Reality and AI in Art is a five-day course, beginning on August 28, that explores the use of new technologies in art and media.

 

Last year KAWS collaborated with Acute Art and the video game Fortnite, so that AR versions of his works could be viewed through a downloaded app as well as the game, so that millions of players were able to experience a digital version of his exhibit at the Serpentine North Gallery in London.

 

---

 

August 3, 2023