Oz Montanía, born in Paraguay in 1985, is one of the most recognized artists in the Latin American urban scene and uses his position to promote the street art movement in Paraguay, a country where urban art is still taking its first steps.
At the age of 12 he began scribblimg on walls, some time later, inspired by sixties comics that his father read, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, as well as characters and plots from DC, Marvel, and Spawn, he developed a taste for illustration. It wasn’t until the age of 17 however that he began to perfect his style on the way to becoming an illustrator, graphic designer, and urban artist. Based on musical influences such as punk, hardcore, and metal, in the beginning he leaned more towards the use of three colors: white, black, and red. At present, his work has evolved and now uses an extensive color palette.
Oz bases his characters on the worldview of Paraguayan ethnic communities such as the Guaraní, Nivaclé, Ayoreo, or any group with traditions and thoughts different from ours. He borrows from and reinterprets all of them using the style he developed based on comic book drawings.
Oz Montanía is an avid supporter of street art festivals and encourages their development in his natal city of La Asunción, he partly managed the Latidoamericano Festival in 2016, bringing 40 Latin American artists, 31 foreign artists, and 9 locals, to intervene in the Historic Center of La Asunción. He has also launched some graffiti shops to make tools accessible for both new and veteran artists.
You can follow Oz Montanía via his Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/ozmontania/