Los Carpinteros
Marco Antonio Castillo and Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez were born in Camagüey, Cuba, 1971, and Villa Clara, Cuba, 1969, respectively. They live and work in Havana and Madrid.
This collective has created some of the most important work to emerge from Cuba in the past decade. Exploring the intersection between art and society, the artists merge architecture, design and sculpture in unexpected, distorted and often humorous ways. Their elegant and mordantly humorous sculptures, drawings, and installations take inspiration from the physical world, particularly that of architecture and urban structures, furniture and design objects, tools and construction materials. These carefully crafted works exploit a visual syntax that sets up contradictions between object and function as well as between practicality and uselessness.
Since their participation in the Havana Biennial in 2003, Los Carpinteros have taken part in several highly acclaimed group exhibitions, including the following institutions: Hayward Gallery, London, 2010; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2009; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2009. They have presented their work internationally in recent solo shows such as those at Ivory Press, Madrid, 2010; and Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York, 2010.
