Pedro Montilla is a Colombian artist whose practice unfolds through painting as a way to understand the experience of being alive and surrounded by life. His work stems from the understanding of painting as a mystical being, voracious and capable of imbuing objects with life. Through this lens, his practice becomes a space for transformation, reflection, and attentive presence. Pedro works primarily on fique fabric, a fiber cultivated, dried, and woven in the Colombian Andes, traditionally used to transport coffee beans and harvests. This surface mirrors both belonging to a place while also holding a sense of dislocation and memory for what it touches. On it, he creates hybrid objects that exist between painting and tapestry, holding an imagery of landscapes, scenes, and abstractions that reflect an amalgam of internal states and lived experience.
Montilla (b.1997, Bogotá, Colombia) holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2025) and a BFA from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá (2020). He has presented solo exhibitions at Policroma Galería, Medellín (2023; 2021), and participated in group exhibitions at the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL (2025); Chili Art Projects, London, UK (2024); National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL (2024); Galería El Museo, Bogotá (2024); SGR Galería, Bogotá (2021); among others. He was a Fellow at Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI (2025) and is currently a resident at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL. Montilla lives and works in Chicago, IL and is currently a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.