about the foundation
Established in 2026
The Malaquias Montoya Foundation was established to preserve Montoya’s artworks and legacy, and activate his vision and pedagogy for the next seven generations.
Based between the artist's home studio and key locations in el Norte de Califas, the Foundation was started by printmaker and former student, Melanie King, in collaboration with Malaquias, his familia, and an established and growing circle of artists and partners. Our goal isn't simply to preserve what Malaquias has accomplished, but to create the conditions for his art, his pedagogy, and his commitment to justice to continue generating new work, new artists, and new possibilities.
The legacy of Montoya lives not only through his iconic silkscreen prints, but in the lives and artwork of the people he taught in community talleres, university courses, and national residencies and talks over the last six decades. His teaching, shaped by the liberatory pedagogy of Paulo Freire and others, values community dialogue and social engagement as integral to the making of art itself. Montoya’s dedication to human dignity and the role of the artist in upholding it, has inspired and shaped generations of artists, educators, and activists.
Mission
The Malaquias Montoya Foundation preserves and activates the art, teaching, and legacy of the iconic Chicano artist. We document and share his approach to arts education, honor hand-pulled silkscreen posters as a living Chicano tradition, and cultivate the next generation of socially engaged printmakers, so that his voice and his vision of human dignity continue to raise consciousness for the next seven generations.
vision
We envision a future where Malaquias's knowledge continues to educate artists, educators, and communities who will carry it forward; where community talleres everywhere can draw on his unique educational pedagogy; where hand-pulled silkscreen postermaking thrives as both craft and art; and where new generations keep el arte de la resistencia alive, responding to the struggles of their times.
core value
silkscreen as craft, cultural heritage, and art
In Chicano communities, the hand-pulled silkscreen print is more than a technique. It is one of our great cultural contributions: a way of making shared from taller to taller, artist to artist, and put directly in service of la gente y la lucha.
Today, as commercial print shops turn to industrial and digital processes, the hand-done approach (hand-cut and hand-drawn stencils using ink and rubylith, mixing paint and pulling each print by hand) is at risk of being lost. We honor this knowledge and teach it, because the craft itself carries cultural knowledge and lessons.
Through his life's work, Malaquias created silkscreen posters as both functional and fine art: a call to action, a protest, and a work of beauty. We believe this process holds wisdom that will continue transforming lives. In a world that measures time only as a capital investment and values art only by its market price, we maintain that the process itself matters. It can be through this process that individuals and communities raise their consciousness and are activated in defining themselves at a time where dominant forces work to control their definitions and dehumanize them.