Never have I ever thought that I would be thrilled by a painting of kitchen sponges. The square-shaped, yellow sponges with green scouring pads on top are very much ordinary to me. Moreover, they are bad for the environment, so I would rather remove them from my life altogether. However, when I saw this still life painting of Sierra Montoya Barela, which depicts cactus-like greenery planted in an old can of peeled tomatoes, placed on a marble counter alongside kitchen sponges and bananas with decorative ceramic tiles in the background, I could not help but feel happy. The sense of closeness was vibrant and it was spreading from every detail of the pictured scenery.

And frankly, this was the first time I saw a painting of kitchen sponges.

Barela frequently portrays casual things from everyday life. Depicting self-narratives on her canvases, the artist shares some of her experiences and drops symbolic images from her life into her paintings intentionally. Although she does not expect the spectators to discover these personal pieces, she hopes that they find a relatable meaning while watching her artworks.

The artist’s experience as a product designer is influential to her as it made her think about how we live with items that we are surrounded with every day. Celebrating this domestic experience, interior spaces and everyday objects are the figures that she practices in her latest artworks.

As a kid, Barela was exposed to art in her home. She learned how to paint from her grandfather, who would paint and woodwork. After completing Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) pre-college program, she decided to continue on that path and chose painting as her medium. The artist explains that the interdisciplinary education she had received at RISD has helped her shape her painting technique.

When Barela first started painting, she would follow ‘the’ rules, such as only painting real things from life with real-life colors. After her sophomore year, she participated in a summer program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she has received an equally traditional education. Interestingly, her experience there enabled her to communicate with herself and to throw away the rules she had established. The reconstructed perspective that she often utilizes is an outcome of this evolvement.

Barela states that she is a planner when it comes to creating. Most of the time the artist already knows what she wants to make and starts with collecting materials to evolve her ideas. While developing her canvases, she practices collages and does plenty of computer work on Photoshop, which is the reason behind her collage-like paintings. As she loves using bright and clear colors, this prepared working style helps her to create efficiently.

Besides painting, Barela spends her time practicing embroidery and sculpting decorational home items. Growing up, her mother was another example for the artist, as she would sew and quilt things, hence fostering Barela with another creative interest. This could be the reason why the artist finds inspiration in being surrounded by other artists’ works and their different choices of medium. She lists the Luxembourgish artist Michel Majerus and the British painter Lucian Freud as her inspirations, as she admires the former’s graphic design abilities that were ahead of his time, and the latter’s interpretations of things according to his subjective reality.

Growing up in Denver, which has a small but connected and welcoming local community for artists, Barela took part in many creative projects in her hometown. Most notably, she has designed one of the three main stages for Grandoozy in 2018, a music and arts festival in Denver, where Kendrick Lamar was one of the headliners, alongside Florence + The Machine, and Stevie Wonder.

Check out Sierra Montoya Barela’s Instagram @smbarela and her website to discover more about the artist and her paintings, along with the embroidered pieces and handmade ceramic objects that she produced.

About Sierra Montoya Barela

Barela is a painter living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Born and raised in Denver, CO, the artist earned her BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 2015. Since her graduation, her artworks have been included in many group and solo shows, and been displayed both in museums and in alternative gallery spaces, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Museo de Las Americas (Denver, CO), David B. Smith Gallery (Denver, CO), Yes Ma’am Projects (Denver, CO), Seasons Art Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), and Zampa Club (Brooklyn, NY). In 2018, she was given The Octopus Initiative Grant by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

Most recently, the artist’s first international solo exhibition “Anywhere and Here” took place at Post Gallery Zurich, Switzerland in September 2021.