Los Carpinteros

Los Carpinteros is the name taken by a group of young Cuban artists who as a collective entity specialize in the creation of humorous installations and objects. In 1991 Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes, Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea formed what would become Los Carpinteros—however they didn’t adopt the name until 1994, “deciding to renounce the notion of individual authorship and refer back to an older guild tradition of artisans and skilled laborers.” However, by 2003, Alexandre Arrechea decided to leave the threesome, leaving Marco and Dagoberto to be the duo behind the name. Both Marco and Dagoberto were born in Cuba and today they live and work in Havana. They have exhibited in their native land, Europe and North America, and have received a number of prestigious awards.

Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés was born in 1971 in Camagüey, Cuba. He studied at the Escuela Elemental de Arte and the Escuela Provincial de Arte, both in Camagüey. He completed his studies in 1994 at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana, Cuba.

Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez was born in 1969 in Caibarién, Las Villas, Cuba. He studied at the Escuela Elemental de Arte, Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba, and at the Escuela Nacional de Arte, Havana, Cuba. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana, Cuba in 1994.

In their work the artists incorporate aspects of architecture, design and sculpture to create installations and drawings that “negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional", where they derive their “inspiration from the physical world” and express their interest in the intersection of art and society in a humorous manner. Between personal exposures are those made in the 90s in the ' "Centro de Arte 23 y 12" Cuba. They have been exhibited the U.S. at "The New Museum of Contemporary Art" and the "Contemporary Art Center", in New York City, New York, "Grant Selwyn Fine Arts" in Los Angeles, California, in Spain at the International Contemporary Art Fair ARCO'98, Madrid and Art Basel Miami where for the 2012 edition of thee fair they built the "Güiro Art Bar". They worked 7 hours a day in medieval times.