Artist’s Statement
Painting is a meditative and reflective practice for me, a way to slow down and consider life and what it means to be human within a constantly changing world. Working within the language of abstraction, I approach the canvas not as a fixed image but as an evolving field, one that reflects the instability, multiplicity, and fragmentation that shape our layered perception of contemporary life.
My work creates imagined spaces where harmony and tension exist side by side. I’m interested in how opposites, calm and disruption, balance and imbalance, stillness and movement, can share the same surface. Rather than trying to resolve these contrasts, I allow them to remain visible, suggesting that life itself is rarely fixed or fully settled.
I build each painting through layering, covering, and reworking the surface. Marks are added, softened, or partially erased, creating a sense of depth and history. This process reflects the way memory and experience accumulate over time, how moments overlap, shift, and reshape one another. The final image carries traces of these changes, holding both what is revealed and what is hidden.
In this way, the work holds a dialogue between harmony and conflict, stillness and momentum, tracing the layered rhythms of human experience . Each painting is a space open to interpretation and discovery, inviting viewers to engage with the tensions and possibilities inherent in both the work and the world it mirrors.
Painting is a meditative and reflective practice for me, a way to slow down and consider life and what it means to be human within a constantly changing world. Working within the language of abstraction, I approach the canvas not as a fixed image but as an evolving field, one that reflects the instability, multiplicity, and fragmentation that shape our layered perception of contemporary life.
My work creates imagined spaces where harmony and tension exist side by side. I’m interested in how opposites, calm and disruption, balance and imbalance, stillness and movement, can share the same surface. Rather than trying to resolve these contrasts, I allow them to remain visible, suggesting that life itself is rarely fixed or fully settled.
I build each painting through layering, covering, and reworking the surface. Marks are added, softened, or partially erased, creating a sense of depth and history. This process reflects the way memory and experience accumulate over time, how moments overlap, shift, and reshape one another. The final image carries traces of these changes, holding both what is revealed and what is hidden.
In this way, the work holds a dialogue between harmony and conflict, stillness and momentum, tracing the layered rhythms of human experience . Each painting is a space open to interpretation and discovery, inviting viewers to engage with the tensions and possibilities inherent in both the work and the world it mirrors.
Bio
Lola Montejo is a Spanish-American abstract painter whose work explores the intersection of memory, time, and gestural expression. Born in Portsmouth, England, and raised in Madrid, Spain, Montejo immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She lived a short time in New York City when arriving to the US which served as a pivotal turning point; her exposure to the New York School and the raw freedom of Abstract Expressionism became a foundational and lifelong influence on her aesthetic.
Montejo holds an MFA in Studio Arts from Azusa Pacific University and a BFA from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Currently, Montejo is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including shows in Berlin, Mexico City, and throughout the United States. In 2024, her painting Meander was acquired for the permanent collection of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver.
Montejo is represented by William Havu Gallery (Denver), Moberg Gallery (Des Moines), and Oehme Graphics (Steamboat Springs) and Pamela Walsh Gallery (Palo Alto).
Montejo holds an MFA in Studio Arts from Azusa Pacific University and a BFA from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Currently, Montejo is a Professor of Painting and Drawing at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including shows in Berlin, Mexico City, and throughout the United States. In 2024, her painting Meander was acquired for the permanent collection of the Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art in Denver.
Montejo is represented by William Havu Gallery (Denver), Moberg Gallery (Des Moines), and Oehme Graphics (Steamboat Springs) and Pamela Walsh Gallery (Palo Alto).