MEET THE LEGACY LAB PARTICIPANTS

Delilah Montoya's decades-long art practice, encompassing photography, printmaking, installation art, and activism. With roots deeply tied to New Mexico, Montoya has long collaborated with Chicanx and Latinx communities to explore historical and contemporary narratives, fostering a deeper understanding of identity, history, and community. Montoya's work represents a range of collaborations and features her communities as well as incarcerated individuals, women boxers, the lands and people of the borderlands, and Chicanx history. Her larger body of artwork spanning decades demonstrates not only a sustained vision of New Mexican cultural diversity and landscape but also an interaction with broader social and contemporary discourses impacting the United States today. Born in Ft. Worth Texas in 1955, she lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A 2026 retrospective exhibition, Delilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance at the Albuquerque Museum, featured all her major works along with a 300 page catalog. Her work is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles, CA; Houston Museum of Fine Art; Houston, TX; National Museum of Mexican Art; Chicago Ill., Amon Carter; Ft Worth TX; The Blanton Museum, Austin, TX; Albuquerque Museum and the Smithsonian Institute; Washington DC. Montoya awards include the USLAF Latinx Fellowship, Artadia Award and the Richard T. Castro Distinguished Professorship. She is a professor emerita from the University of Houston, College of the Arts.