milton riaño
Milton Riaño is a Colombian new media artist based in Montreal creating immersive and interactive installations and performances. His work explores alternative modes of being in the Anthropocene, emphasizing presence, care, coexistence, and imagination. Sculpture serves as a central framework, linking digital, physical, human, and living materials, while interactive systems transform digital forms into instruments of touch, movement, and presence. His practice increasingly incorporates hybrid and living materials, including custom agar-agar bioplastics, clay, aquatic plants, light, sensors, and sound.
Riaño has presented individual and collaborative projects in Canada and internationally, led workshops for multigenerational audiences, and collaborated with artists, scientists, curators, and cultural mediators as an Interactive Media Developer. He also has experience as a curator of multimedia exhibitions of Latin American artists in Canada. Riaño studied Fine Arts and Creative Technologies (2019–2020) at Université de Montréal, completing a research-creation project published and presented at the NIME conference in Shanghai. Earlier studies in Civil Engineering (2007–2014) and Spatial Analysis (2015–2016) at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, along with professional experience as a transport advisor and spatial analyst, provide analytical and systemic skills applied to his artistic practice.
A pivotal moment in his practice was a year-long residency at the Redpath Museum, McGill University (2021), where he conducted research on aquatic ecosystems and climate change, created artworks now in the museum collection, and led workshops. This research continues to evolve in his ongoing expanded cinema project at the Gault Nature Reserve, supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts, which builds upon and deepens the themes explored during the Redpath residency, integrating artistic, ecological, and interdisciplinary inquiry.