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Daniel Mantilla approaches the pictorial space in terms of enclosure and accumulation. He uses a wide range of materials, marking methods, and depictive styles such: painting, drawing, collage, and cut-outs motivated by ideas of transition and instability. 

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Mantilla`s cast of characters inherits in environments suggestive of domestic spaces, urban settings, patios or gardens, and river banks. Spatial uncertainty prevails as attempts are made towards equilibrium using rickety structures and contraptions. Mantilla remembers handmade scaffolds and discarded materials to buttress falling walls from his childhood in Bogotá and Ibague. 

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These ad hoc solutions have become metaphors for his character`s efforts at communication and interpersonal relations. All is in flux, things and events are in transition to uncertain destinations. Though dangers exist, the overall tone of Mantilla`s scenes is one of adventure, resilience, and surprise. 

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Mantilla’s work has been exhibited in Colombia, Spain, and the United States at venues including Museo de Arte del Tolima Bank of the Republic in Ibagué, Colombia; The Tampa Museum of Art and USF Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa, FL.; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Hunter College, New York. He is a recipient of a Kossak Travel Grant and Recognition Painting Award Julio Fajardo from Museo del Tolima, Colombia. He was an artist-in-residence at the Liquitex Cadmium-Free Research Residency and The Clemente with the Artists Alliance inc. both organized by Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn. Since 2018, Mantilla has collaborated with Sprechgesang Institute, a research-based platform for artists working between languages and disciplines. 

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Mantilla graduated with an MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College, New York in 2014, and holds a Post-baccalaureate Certificate in Studio-Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 2012.