Los Carpinteros
Los Carpinteros Cuba 1991. Group of Cuban artists made up of Dagoberto Rodríguez (Caibarién, 1969), Marcos Castillo (Camagüey, 1971) and Alexandre Arrechea (Trinidad, 1970). As creators, they claim the importance of craftsmanship and popular culture and fight to break the boundaries between high and low culture. Their artistic activity coincides with the redefinition of strategies that Cuban art experienced in the 90s, after the exodus of intellectuals that occurred between 1989 and 1991. They became known at the V Havana Biennial in 1994 and from that moment on their work It begins to be valued internationally, especially after its participation in the Lüdwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, in Aachen, Germany; at the New Museum in New York and in one of the show rooms at the Arco fair, Madrid. The work of Los Carpinteros suffers from a spatial anxiety, which translates not only into a very particular treatment of physical, tangible space, but also of those spaces related to memory, desire and representation. It is from the provisional that Los Carpinteros immediately introduce themselves into the transportable, further complicating the use of spatial relationships and points of view in their works, as raw material of reflections, which highlight the tensions between the public and the private. In their work they use architecture, sculpture, installation, drawing or design to represent political and social metaphors.
Awards
• 2002: Distinction for National Culture, Ministry of Culture, Havana, Cuba.
• 2000: Award. Promotion of the Arts, UNESCO, 7th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.
• 1997: Popular Survey Award, El Mundo Magazine International Art Fair
Contemporary ARCO, Madrid, Spain
Personal Exhibitions
2011
• The great Picnic, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
• Rumba Muerta, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA.
2010
• Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, USA.
• Galpão Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brazil. Dragão do Mar Center for Art and Culture / MAC,
Fortaleza, Brazil.
• Turquoise Drama, Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain.
2008
• The Roller Coaster, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA.
• Sub-Urbano, Galpão Fortes Vilaça, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2007
• Los Carpinteros, Grand café – services art contemporain, During Estuaire Nantes-Saint-Nazaire,
Saint-Nazaire, France.
2006
• Sel et Poivre, Galerie In SITU, Paris, France.
• Faro Tumbado, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba. During Dynamics of Urban Culture, 9th
Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.
• The Carpenters, Contemporaneously, Milan, Italy.
• Los Carpinteros, Unosunove and IILA, Rome, Italy.
2005
• Los Carpinteros: Inventing the World / Inventar el mundo [April 8 – July 15, 2005], USF
Contemporary Art Center, South Florida University, Tampa / [January 21 – April 2, 2006],
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois / [May 6 – July 30, 2006], Contemporary Arts
Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA / [January 27- April 22, 2007], Museum London (Ontario),
Canada.
• In the Garden, Fortes Vilaça Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil.
2004
• Downtown, Anthony Grant Inc., New York, USA.
• Hand Book – drawings Recent Sculptures, Galeria Servando Cabrera, Havana, Cuba.
2003
• Novos Desenhos, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Fluid, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.
2002
• Los Carpinteros’ intervention at B. Opening [Summer], Baltic The Center for Contemporary
Art, New Castle, England.
• Transportable City, Contemporary Art Museum of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
2001
• úneles Populares, Palacio de Abrahante, Salamanca, Spain.
• Los Carpinteros, Galeria Camargo VilaVa, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Transportable City, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA.
• Los Carpinteros, Grant Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
• Transportable City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
• Los Carpinteros, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
2000
• Los Carpinteros, Grant Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
1999
• Tania Bruguera/Los Carpinteros, Vera Van Laer Galerie, Antwerp, Belgium.
1998
• The carpenters. Project Room, ARCO’98 International Contemporary Art Fair,
Juan Carlos I Fair Park, Madrid, Spain.
• Popular Mechanics, Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
• The Carpenters, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Kunsthalle, Berlin,
Germany.
• Bili Bidjocka/Los Carpinteros/Rivane Neuenschwande, The New Museum of
Contemporary Art, New York, USA
• Los Carpinteros, Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA.
1997
• We build the bridge so that people can cross, we build walls so that the sun does not
arrive, Angel Romero Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
• Old methods for new debts, Convent of San Francisco de Asís, Havana,
Cuba.
• Los Carpinteros/Carlos Estévez/Offill Industrial, Nina Menocal Gallery, Mexico City,
Mexico.
nineteen ninety six
• Everything has been reduced to half of the original, Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, La
Havana Cuba.
nineteen ninety five
• The carpenters. Recent Work, Angel Romero Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
• Land from Cuba for sale, L’Entrepot Pour Matériel Pharmaceutique, Nantes, France.
Exhibition not shown due to the cancellation of Les Allumées Nantes-La Havanne.
1995
• Civil Engineering, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
1992
• Arte-sano (Fernando Rodríguez Falcón/Alexandre Arrechea/Dagoberto Rodríguez), House
of the Young Creator, Havana, Cuba.
• No painted sites, Arte 7 Gallery, Yara Cinematographic Cultural Complex, Havana,
Cuba.
• Easel Painting, Art Center 23 and 12, Havana, Cuba.
1991
• For You, Partagás Tobacco Factory, Havana, Cuba.