Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Montoya.
Hi Carlos, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
For me, I finished HS at Torrey Pines playing football. I ended up working at 91x for a while before jumping to Los Angeles to work for Tesla Motors. I ended up going to school at Art Center College of Design where I learned so much that I apply today. I founded my own business around product design in the gaming space. My wife, dog and I moved down from LA to be closer to family March 2020, not realizing Covid was about to shut the world down. Ended up really enjoying Carlsbad and settling in.
We opened Hotwater Gallery, May 2023 with a solo artist show, around an artist who had to steal his own painting. The artist stole his own work away from a music festival in order to preserve it. Once we learned the risks this artist was willing to take – a bold and uncharacteristic move to steal a giant painting – we knew we had to open our first show around this stolen painting named The Gate Keeper. All because this artist, Taylor Gallegos, considered this painting his best to date.
Finding interesting stories like this is what Hotwater Gallery is all about. We a fine art gallery building a roster of artists around striking visuals and compelling backstories.
Hotwater Gallery now represents Taylor Gallegos and other incredible artists selling original artworks and prints online and in person.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Hotwater Gallery originally started out looking to open a brick n mortar record store and coffee shop (hybrid business) in the heart of Carlsbad village and we ran into roadblock after roadblock. Corporate money was pouring into the village, Better Buzz took over a Mexican food staple, and we got priced out fast. We ran out of options in the village and needed to pivot, but we didn’t want to lose our passion for music and craft beverages, so we set off to build an event space where we could merge all of these things together. Hotwater Gallery was born.
Building an art gallery from scratch was challenging in so many ways – that actually – we were ready for. The long nights and endless to-do lists didn’t scare us, and it never will because we will love what we do. This gallery brings new energy to the stuffy art world and we’re happy to create our own path, through the ups and downs.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Hotwater Gallery is a fine art gallery (online and in-person). We’re on a mission to find the most incredible artist and directly sell their amazing work, framed and ready to hang. We are creating a platform for fine art to be accessible yet exclusive. We hand select the best artists and photographers for people to choose from, therefore boring walls get replaced with conversation starters. We provide artwork for customers shopping for their home, office, and hospitality.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Quality sound and art are merging. HiFi is making a resurgence, especially in art galleries. Why? The overlap of audiences. If you think about it, vinyl records have always been affordable “art” and for many of us, me included, we treated them like art and hung them on the wall. The endless scrolling of music is nearly available to anyone with a smartphone, so naturally the counterculture to that is a hand selected vinyl record playlists. Curated by a human is growing in value, music and art are the frontier of this movement.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hotwatergallery.com
- Instagram: @htwtr
Image Credits
Hotwater Gallery
