Joselu Montojo

Through his drawings, the Mallorcan artist Joselu Montojo expresses himself in the most honest way: “In my work, you can see traits of my personality that I’m not going to tell you, but I like that people can interpret”. Through the artist’s work, the observer can draw their own conclusion about who Joselu Montojo is. However, this representation of his personality that he depicts through drawing came organically to him: “I have always been very shy, and I have always drawn, but it was a very inner part of me at the beginning”. 

Starting at a very young age, Montojo recalls being a teenager and still not telling his friends that he drew: “for me, it was something very, very intimate”. From 2015 onwards, after getting the opportunity to do an exhibition, his art became more public, and something about it caught the public’s attention. “I think what was striking about my paintings in its day was the coloring, but now I would say it’s the apparent simplicity of my drawings”, he reflects.

In recent years, the mallorcan artist has opted for expressing and creating through textures: “I think you can convey the same with much less color”, he adds. “Lately, I am adding embroidery, using it like another element, as could be paint”. Through the interaction between different textures, Joselu depicts serene feminine faces: “More than joy, I would like my art to convey a certain tranquility”. 

Joselu’s paintings emanate peace through the illustration of the complexity of the woman: “I think the shape of women and their complexity is much richer than that of others, that of men or other elements such as animals”. A richness that is also influenced by his personal life: “I also believe that there is a strong influence of the women in my life: my mother, my sister, my wife, and now my daughter”. 

Women of all traits and features can be admired in his drawings: “I’m inspired by things in my day-to-day life, by the people I talk to, from going for a walk in the street to shop windows”. An inspiration that, involuntarily, is perceived by others: “There are many people who tell me that all my paintings are my wife; I don’t do it intentionally, but I imagine that yes, there is some connection”.

Another unescapable influence of Joselu is his birthplace: “I am from Palma, and since I started, Mediterranean iconography has been very present in my work, both in the colors and in the simplicity of the strokes”. And it will continue to be very present, as a part of his nature and that is portrayed through different fabrics. Joselu, inspired by antiquities, works with antique textiles: “I worked for many years with antiques, so I developed a special interest in antique fabrics, and since then I think that these fabrics are much better than the fabrics that are made today”. 

These ancient materials provide the artist with a certain texture and an exclusive quality that is unmatchable. And not only that, but it is a sustainable form of creating art: “It is a way of giving them a second life, we give continuity to old sheets or towels that we wouldn’t use now because they are very hard fabrics”. Experimenting with new textures as a base is an essential component of Joselu’s art: “I’m going to continue working along that line of craftsmanship, placing great emphasis on all the textures I use as a base, which I think are almost as important as the figure itself or the drawing itself”, he adds, “It greatly enriches the work”. 

Through the years, his art has evolved towards a deeper appreciation for artisanal irregularity, that he has partly gained through manual creation. “I started doing digital drawing, but with time I have realized that it was much less unique, much easier to copy, and now I am much more interested in the artisanal part”. The touch and the feel of manual work provides an exclusive uniqueness that can’t be achieved through digital drawing. 

Even though Joselu does not rule out going back to his original ways, he feels like his art has changed accordingly to his own personal development: “I think I have always remained quite faithful to the same style, but it has been evolving and changing depending on how I have been maturing and how I have been changing my lifestyle”. In other words: “The evolution of my work can be read as the evolution of my life”.

With a much more complex approach in the younger stages of his career, where there was a predominance of color and shapes, the mallorcan artist has now only kept the silhouettes, giving more prominence to the line, to the texture. A different representation of his artistic essence that will continue to develop as he grows older, providing new ways of depicting feminine shapes and that he will explore in his recently opened studio in Coruña: “It’s a space that I want to be like a window to the world”.