David Alvarez reviews Fernando Montiel Klint

Fernando Montiel Klint

Fernando Montiel Klint is an artist whose work is primarily focused in the contemporary art practice of staged photography. I stumbled upon this artist while walking the halls of SAMA during FotoSeptiembre last year, and was immediately drawn in by his work. Beginning as preliminary sketches Fernando's pieces advance to large photographic images that seem to mark the artists confrontation of the external forces of materially.

I predominantly drawn to his series entitled Espacio Confinado or Confined Space. I was drawn to the photos in this particular series by the way he exposes the impact of popular culture and it's affect on urban living in the twenty-first century. The photograph entitled Salamanca, is perhaps my favorite piece in the Confined Space Series. In this particular photo he creates an overwhelming feeling of media overload, he achieves this by cramming ten people into what seems like a small hotel room, with a few of them passed out from excessive drinking. Their overly dramatic poses and clothing also help expose this effect of mass media on urban living. I read the photograph as if popular culture has overwhelmed us to the point that a few of us just can't take much more.