Biography  

Santiago Tamayo Soler (born 1990, Bogotá, Colombia) 

Santiago Tamayo Soler is a Montréal-based multidisciplinary artist working mainly in video, with a background in performance art and film. He holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. Santiago is one of the recipients of the 2023 EDAA Emerging Digital Artists Award presented by EQ Bank and Trinity Square Video. Santiago was the 2024 artist in residence at the Montréal Fine Arts Museum, as part of Impressions. He has participated in residencies in Dazibao in 2022 (Online), and the PHI Foundation in 2021. In May 2024, Santiago was announced as one of the laureates of the MNBAQ Contemporary Art Award 2025.

Santiago's practice focuses on world-building. The artist proposes digitally constructed universes that blend with sampled archival elements, such as video, photography, and online-found images. These virtual environments propose examining Latin American identity from a diasporic lens. His explorations often mimic the visual language of recognizable formats, like video games, telenovelas, and digital cartography.  He uses these formats as narrative devices to unfold stories that suggest a future imbued with radical fantasy. Santiago's work has been featured in the solo exhibition Veneno en la Sangre (Centre Clark, Montréal, 2025). Collective screenings and exhibitions include Art and/or Game: Symbiosis or Dissonance? (Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France, 2023), A psionic hope, an astonishing dream  (Trinity Square Video, Toronto, 2023), Prémonitions: Immersions & Récits (Massivart + Chromatic Festival, Montréal, 2023), Sunrise, Sunset (Bradley Ertaskiran, Montréal, 2023), among many others.

Biography adapted from the artist with permission.

Veneno en la Sangre 

2025

Still from digital video 

Image courtesy of the artist 

Solo exhibitions

Santiago Tamayo Soler Solo Exhibition Veneno en la Sangre, Centre Clark, Montréal, QC, 2025

Collective exhibitions and Screenings

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition 6th Edition MNBAQ Contemporary Award Exhibition, MNBAQ, Québec, QC, 2025

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Public Exhibition Regarde!, Montréal, QC, 2024

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Performing Time: In Vivo/Ex Situ/In Situ, Null Video Art Space, Lisbon, Portugal, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Press Release Collective Exhibition A psionic hope, an astonishing dream, curated by Philip Leonard Ocampo, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Sunrise, Sunset, Bradley Ertaskiran, Montréal, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Intangible entre-deux/Intangible In-Between, Centre Bang, Saguenay, QC, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition jeu_art_game | INTANGIBLE IN-BETWEEN, Perte de Signal, Montréal, QC, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Art and/or Game: Symbiosis or Dissonance?, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Ghosts of the Machine, Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver, BC, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Sight & Sound Festival, Eastern Bloc, Montréal, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Intangible In-Between, Sporobole, Sherbrooke, QC, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Virtual Collective Exhibition Glaneuse, GalerieGalerie x Foire Papier, Montréal, QC, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Screening at Prospect Art, Los Angeles, US, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Screening at Undocumenta, Kassel, Germany, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition and room in the bag of stars, Fondation PHI, Montréal, QC, 2021

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Performance Exhibition Prendre Place / Taking Place, MAI Montréal Arts Interculturels, Montréal, QC, 2019 (in French)

Santiago Tamayo Soler Collective Exhibition Chromatic, Ancienne école des Beaux-Arts, Montréal, 2018

Interviews

Unavailable content found online, section to be updated.

Presentations

Santiago Tamayo Soler Artist Talk with Marcela Borquez Schwarzbeck, Centre Clark, Montréal, 2025

Santiago Tamayo Soler World Building Workshop, Prospect Art, Montréal/Los Angeles, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Panelist, "Marginalized Performers in Virtual Spaces", Funhouse, POP MONTRÉAL, 2020

Published work by Santiago Tamayo Soler

Santiago Tamayo Soler digital publication Neon, Dazibao, Montréal, 2022

Published work about Santiago Tamayo Soler

Santiago Tamayo Soler Article "Santiago Tamayo Soler: Transformer le paysage canadien", written by Jérôme Delgado, Le Devoir, 2024 (in French)

Santiago Tamayo Soler Review Article "Tracing to Build: Concealing to Reveal", written by Edward Pérez-González, Ciel Variable 122, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Article "Santiago Tamayo Soler, ganador de la residencia Huellas 2024", Montreal Hispano, 2022 (in Spanish)

Santiago Tamayo Soler Article "Retornar – A world where queer latinamericans survive and live past the crisis of power", written by Rafael Zen, The Source, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Article "Why Dance In the Face Of the War?", written by Luce Delire, Stillpoint Mag, 2022

Press release

Santiago Tamayo Soler Press Release "Santiago Tamayo Soler, winner of the 2024 Impressions residency", Conseil des Arts de Montréal, 2024

Santiago Tamayo Soler Press Release for Collective Exhibition Sunrise, Sunset, Mousse Magazine, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Review Article "Immersive multimedia exhibit explores our relationship to technology and ecology", written by Daniel Chai, Daily Hive, 2022

List of Grants, Awards and Projects

Santiago Tamayo Soler MNBAQ Contemporary Art Award, 2025

Santiago Tamayo Soler Award for 'Impressions' Artist Residency, Musée de beaux-arts de Montréal, 2024

Santiago Tamayo Soler Award for Emerging Digital Artists, EQ Bank, Toronto, ON, 2023

Santiago Tamayo Soler Instagram Residency at Dazibao, Montréal, 2022

Santiago Tamayo Soler Artist Residency at Centre PHI, Montréal, 2021

Documents courtesy of the artist 

Using Format