• The Team
    Juan, Fernando and Sandra

    The Team

    Botero in China was born in 2015, when Master Fernando Botero was invited by the Chinese Government to present his work for the first time in mainland China. In their aim of further opening the Chinese nation to the rest of the world, the country's cultural officials wanted to host an exhibition of the world`s most important artist in China’s main museum. It was thus that Master Botero became the first living artist to be invited to exhibit his paintings in the National Museum of China in Beijing, one of the most important museums of the world.

     

    What the Chinese Government didn’t suspect is that Master Botero shared their desire to introduce his artworks to China’s citizens. Indeed, Master Botero had already exhibited his paintings and sculptures in the most important cities of the world, to great acclaim. His work had travelled throughout different nations and continents and many of his monumental sculptures had adorned the most glamorous streets of the Western hemisphere, such as the Champs Elysées in Paris and New York’s Park Avenue. However, he had not yet hosted an official exhibition in mainland China. And he longed to show his art in the most populated nation on Earth.

     

    Understanding the significance such event would have for his father, Master Botero’s son, Fernando, undertook the quest to fulfill his dream and began to work alongside Juan and Sandra Montana, two art business siblings who had been living and working in China for more than 10 years. It was through their conversation with China’s top cultural officials that they discovered the convergence of the desire of the most important artist and the most important country of the world to join their paths.

     

    Botero in China is the team that produced Master Botero’s exhibition in the National Museum of China in November 2015. To date, it has also organized two additional exhibitions of the Colombian artist in Asia: one in the China Art Museum of Shanghai and the other in Hong Kong’s legendary Central Harbourfront.

     

    Additionally, Botero in China has also been involved in several different projects to expand Master Fernando Botero’s artistic legacy around the world, such as educational events, promoting Don Millar’s acclaimed Botero film documentary and taking his paintings, sculptures and drawings to important art fairs and collectors around the globe.

  • Fernando Botero , Director

    Maestro Botero and Fernando Botero 

    Fernando Botero

    Director

    Fernando Botero Zea (born of Colombian parents in Mexico City in 1956) is a Colombian-Mexican businessman, entrepreneur, Director of Botero in China, lecturer of The Landmark Forum and the eldest son of Master Fernando Botero. During his childhood he lived in Mexico, Colombia and the USA. He studied Political Science at the Université de la Sorbonne in Paris, Political Science and Economics at the Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia, an MBA at Harvard University and a Master in Public Administration in the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in Boston, USA. From 2008 he has collaborated in diverse projects that intend to bring Master Botero’s work to China and from 2015 he became co-director, alongside Juan Montana, of the Botero in China project which brought a large-scale retrospective of Master Botero’s work to the National Museum of China in Beijing, the China Art Museum of Shanghai and the Monumental Sculptures Exhibition to Hong Kong.

     

  • Juan Montana, Director

    Maestro Botero and Juan Montana

    Juan Montana

    Director

    Colombian businessman, entrepreneur and Director of the  Botero in China team. During his childhood he lived in Colombia, and the USA. He graduated from Management Studies in the Universidad de Los Andes of Colombia before moving to China in 2006 to study Chinese at the Capital University of Business and Economics. From 2012 he has collaborated in diverse projects that intended to bring Master Botero’s work to China, and from 2014 he became co-director, alongside Fernando Botero, eldest son of the Maestro, of the Botero in China project which brought a large-scale retrospective of Master Botero’s work to the National Museum of China in Beijing, the China Art Museum in Shanghai and the Monumental Sculptures Exhibition to the Central Harbourfront in Hong Kong. He currently lives in Shanghai where he continues to spread Master Botero's legacy in China and around the globe.

  • Sandra Montana, Director - Shanghai Office

    Sandra Montana and Maestro Botero

    Sandra Montana

    Director - Shanghai Office

    Colombian journalist, entrepreneur and co-Director of the Botero in China team. During her childhood she lived and studied in Colombia and France. She did her undergraduate in Journalism Studies in the Javeriana University of Bogotá, Colombia, before moving to China in 2012 where she started working as an independent Journalist in Beijing, focusing on Asian and Latin American art. 

     

    From 2012 she has collaborated in diverse projects that intended to bring Master Botero’s work to China, and from 2014 she became Project Manager of Botero in China, which brought a large-scale retrospective of Master Botero’s work to the National Museum of China in Beijing, the China Art Museum in Shanghai and the Monumental Sculptures Exhibition to the Hong Kong's Central Harbourfront. She currently lives in Shanghai and continues to work in spreading Master Botero's legacy in China and around the globe.

     

  • An evening with Fernando Botero Jr.