Artist

Los Carpinteros

Born in Havana, 1992

Los Carpinteros: Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes (b. 1971)  and Dagoberto Rodríguez Sanchez (b. 1969)
The Havana-based collective Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters) has created some of the most important work to emerge from Cuba in the past decade. Formed in 1992, the trio (consisting of Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez) adopted their name in 1994, deciding to renounce the notion of individual authorship and refer back to an older guild tradition of artisans and skilled laborers. Interested in the intersection between art and society, the group merges architecture, design, and sculpture in unexpected and often humorous ways. They create installations and drawings which negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional. The group’s elegant and mordantly humorous sculptures, drawings and installations draw their inspiration from the physical world—particularly that of furniture. Their carefully crafted works use humor to exploit a visual syntax that sets up contradictions among object and function 
as well as practicality and uselessness.
For Los Carpinteros, drawing has played an integral role as a mock technical draft or form of a blue print that suggests not only a process of artistic elaboration but also a form of architectural or carpentry plans.
Los Carpinteros’s works are part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museo de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; the Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria; and the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions globally at institutions such as Matadero, Madrid, Spain; Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany; Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland; Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; and Es Baluard: Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Palma, Mallorca, Spain. They have participated in U.S. exhibitions at the New Museum, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art in General, New York; Artists Space, New York; and Arizona State University, Pheonix, Arizona. Los Carpinteros are the subject of a monograph recently published by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, which gives a comprehensive insight into their artistic practices from 2003-2010.
During Art Basel Miami Beach in 2012, Los Carpinteros presented Güiro, a highly acclaimed art bar installation produced in collaboration with Absolut Art Bureau.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros at Parasol Unit
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art presents an exhibition of works by Cuban art collective,...
24 Mar 2015 - 24 May 2015
London
Exhibitions
Crack
Starting from the term Crack, the selected artists represent the different facets of the financial crisis....
20 May 2015 - 03 Jul 2015
Galería Habana
Havana
Exhibitions
Daros Latinamerica Collection
Fundación Proa presents, for the first time in Argentina, the Daros Latinamerica Collection, an exhibition...
04 Jul 2015 - 13 Sep 2015
Fundación Proa
Buenos Aires
Exhibitions
Unsaid/Spoken
Unsaid/Spoken, Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and CIFO includes about 38 pieces by 24 artists...
05 Dec 2012 - 04 Mar 2013
Miami
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Monterrey presents the first solo exhibition in Mexico of the Cuban...
21 Aug 2015 - 03 Jan 2016
MARCO Monterrey
Monterrey
Exhibitions
Cuba – Ficción y Fantasía
Cuba – Ficción y fantasía [Cuba – Fiction and Fantasy] presents around 130 works belonging...
12 Sep 2015 - 13 Dec 2015
Casa Daros
Rio de Janeiro
Exhibitions
TRIO Bienal 2015: Utopias – Pretéritos da Contemporaneidade
Utopias – Pretéritos da Contemporaneidade [Utopias: Past Tenses of the Contemporary] is a show with...
06 Sep 2015 - 26 Nov 2015
Memorial Getúlio Vargas
Rio de Janeiro
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros: El Pueblo Se Equivoca
El Pueblo Se Equivoca [The People Make Mistakes], the new solo show by Cuban duo Los Carpinteros, occupies...
27 Oct 2015 - 14 Nov 2015
São Paulo
Exhibitions
Chrome Hearts
Sean Kelly Gallery will present an exhibition at Chrome Hearts’ Miami Design District location to coincide...
02 Dec 2015 - 06 Dec 2015
Sean Kelly Gallery Miami
Miami
Exhibitions
Atopia – Migration, Heritage and Placelessness
Atopia: Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection is an ambitious exhibition developed...
01 Mar 2016 - 04 Jun 2016
Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia​​
Bogotá
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros Solo Show
The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo will present a major solo exhibition of the work of Los...
17 Mar 2016 - 04 Sep 2016
Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo – MUAC
Mexico City
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros: Vital Object
The exhibition Vital Object shows more than 70 works of Los Carpinteros. By employing a creative use...
03 May 2016 - 02 Aug 2016
São Paulo
Exhibitions
Cuba. Tattoing History
The PAC in Milan explores foreign cultures through contemporary art, drawing for the 2016 a guideline...
05 Jul 2016 - 12 Sep 2016
Milan
Exhibitions
Uma Canção para o Rio (parte 2)
Fortes D’Aloia &Gabriel presents “Uma Canção para o Rio [A Song fro Rio] (parte 2)”,...
18 Feb 2017 - 25 Mar 2017
Rio de Janeiro
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros: Vital Object
The exhibition Vital Object – previously shown at CCBB in Sao Paulo – shows more than 70 works of...
03 May 2017 - 02 Aug 2017
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro (CCBB)
Rio de Janeiro
Exhibitions
Los Carpinteros: Susurro del Palmar
On view are two new groups of works: large-format bronze sculptures and an interactive, space-filling...
09 Jun 2018 - 27 Jul 2018
Peter Kilchmann Zurich
Zurich
Exhibitions
The World on Paper
The World on Paper is the opening collective exhibition of PalaisPopulaire, which features works...
27 Sep 2018 - 07 Jan 2019
PalaisPopulaire
Berlin
Exhibitions
The Non Community
Selected works by both Spanish and foreign artists develop in this exhibition an investigation focused...
26 Oct 2018 - 27 Jan 2019
CentroCentro
Madrid
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