I was at the Halcyon Gallery and decided to see what Montoya's work seemed to be about without looking for any background information.
I like work that is about humans, but without necessarily having humans in it, and I think that that is what this work was.
I feel like the work questions money's power over people and emphasises its repetitiveness, using it as a medium in a way that forces us to see it as exactly what it is physically. You pay attention to its form and aesthetic qualities and question why it represents so much more than what it is. Montoya surrounds a large stack of sheets of cotton paper by bold, iconic images made of currency, and this emphasises how much difference there is between what money is, physically, and what it means to us once numbers and landmarks and portraits of 'important' people have been printed on it.
I think this work is another example of clean, elegant, uncomplicated solutions.