Artist of the Day, August 6, 2026: Los Carpinteros, a Cuban artist collective (#2598)

The Havana-based collective Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters) have created some of the most important work to emerge from Latin America in the past decade. Formed in 1992 (Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and, until his departure in June 2003, Alexandre Arrechea), Los Carpinteros 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, their oeuvre occupies an intriguing and ambiguous space between conceptualism, activism and formalism. Merging architecture, design, and sculpture in unexpected and often playful ways, their elegant and mordantly humorous work negotiates between the functional and the nonfunctional, drawing inspiration from the physical world—particularly that of architectural constructions. Their carefully crafted drawings and installations use wit to exploit a visual syntax that sets up contradictions between object and function
 as well as practicality and uselessness.

For Los Carpinteros, drawing has played an integral role as a mock technical draft or blueprint, suggesting not only a process of artistic elaboration but also as architectural or carpentry plans.

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. Los Carpinteros create a response to places, spaces and objects, how they have been conceived, built, used and abandoned.

Los Carpinteros’ works are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the TATE Gallery, London; 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; the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Los Carpinteros or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez

 Havana Country Club, 1994

Injertos, 1996

La Fuente, 1996

Rayos X, 1998

Downtown Verde, 2001

Swimming Pool-Block, 2002

Bisagras como un poblado, 2003

El barrio, 2004

Mapa de la Habana, 2004

Fluido, 2006

17M , 2010

Sala de Lectura Ovalada (Oval Reading Room), 2011

Almond Art Deco, 2012

Lámpara de Mesa IV, 2013

Playa Tóxica , 2013

Sala de Lectura Coppelia (Prototipo), 2013

Sala de lectura estrella, 2013

Sala de Lectura Octogonal (Prototipo), 2013

Celosía Poliédrica Posada, 2015

Clavo Seis, 2015

Pabellón Polen vista superior Diptych, 2015

Espuma cubica verde I, (díptico), 2016

Estantería Burbuja, Díptico, 2016

 Estudio de Hans Poelzig, sólido tres, 2016

Jardín de Concreto Cinco, 2016

ala de Lectura 4 Bolas, Tres, 2016

Sala de Lectura Estrella 5 puntas, 2016

Babel Violeta (diptych), 2017

Sala de Lectura Quimbumbia, 2017

Torre Acostada, 2018

Artist of the Day, August 5, 2026 : Julio González, a Spanish sculptor (#2597)

 Julio González (1986) was born in Barcelona. With his older brother Joan he worked in his father's metalsmith shop; during the evenings they took classes at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. González exhibited metalwork at the Exposición de bellas artes e industrias artísticas in Barcelona in 1892, 1896, and 1898, and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1897 he began to frequent Els Quatre Gats, a café in Barcelona, where he met Pablo Picasso.

In 1900 González moved to Paris; there he began to associate with Pablo Gargallo, Juan Gris, Manolo Hugué, Max Jacob, and Jaime Sabartés. His first embossed metalwork was produced in 1900. He exhibited with the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1903, 1909, and frequently during the early twenties. González participated in the Salon des Indépendants in 1907 and occasionally thereafter. He first exhibited paintings at the Salon d'Automne in 1909, and showed both sculpture and paintings there regularly during the teens and twenties. In 1918 González worked at the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt, where he learned techniques of autogenous welding he used later in iron sculptures. In 1920 he became reacquainted with Picasso.

González's first solo exhibition, which included paintings, sculpture, drawings, jewelry, and objets d'art, was held in 1922 at the Galerie Povolovsky in Paris. The following year he was given a solo show of works in similarly varied media at the Galerie du Caméléon in Paris. In 1923 González participated in the first Salon du Montparnasse, Paris, with Raoul Dufy, Paco Durrio, Friesz, and others. In 1924 he was included in the exhibition Les Amis du Montparnasse at the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d'Automne in Paris. He made his first iron sculptures in 1927. From 1928 to 1931 González provided technical assistance to Picasso in executing sculptures in iron. In 1930 he was given a solo sculpture exhibition at the Galerie de France in Paris, and the following year showed at the Salon des Surindépendants for the first time. In 1937 he contributed to the Spanish Pavilion of the World's Fair in Paris and Cubism and Abstract Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That same year he moved to Arcueil, near Paris, where he died on March 27, 1942.

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Julio González or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Julio González, Self-portrait 1920

Mask, 1927-29

The Couple, 1927-29

Sharp Head, 1927-30

Don Quixote, 1929-30

Pierrot (Arlequin), 1930

Profile of Marie-Thérèse, 1930-34

Head with a Halo, 1932

The Prayer, 1932

Large Trumpet, 1932-33

Small Head with Triangle, 1933

Head Called The Apostle, 1933-34

Small Sculpture of Space, 1933-34

Large Standing Figure, 1934

Reclining Figure, 1934

The Hair, 1934

The Head, 1934

Femme Assise I, 1935

 Head, 1935

Seated Woman II, 1935-36

Reclining Figure II, 1936

Woman Combing Her Hair III, 1936

Femme au miroir (Woman before the Mirror), 1936-37

Unfinished Mask, 1936-37

Daphné, 1937

Forme rigide, 1937

Homme gothique (Gothic Man), 1937

La petite faucille, 1937

Raised Hand, 1937

Reclining Hand, 1937

Mask of the Crying Montserrat, 1938-39