Latin American artist Carlos Luna was born in 1969 in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba. His artwork explores across a deep body of work how memories and imagination affect temporal perception drawing deeply upon a rich culture. Luna has focused his artistic career on several artistic mediums including painting, drawing, sculptures, ceramics, mosaics, and jacquard tapestries. In each art form he is highly original, technically sound and constantly provocative. He is one of the few artists who has mastered multiple art mediums.
In 1991 Carlos immigrated to Mexico and began his experimentation with art. Luna immersed himself in the vibrancy of Mexican art and culture. He first started creating drawings on amate paper and his work with Talavera ceramics which would become iconic and sought-after mediums that he has mastered throughout his career.
In 2001 he immigrated again, this time to Miami, FL accompanied by with his wife and three children. Since his relocation Luna has found notoriety within the contemporary art movement and gained success in the United States.
Although Luna began his career as a contemporary painter his work has constantly evolved and continues to progress to date. Luna experiments with new art media and expands upon the ways in which he uses drawings to portray, recount, and explore personal, national and trans-national awakenings.
Luna has emerged as a notable representative and figurehead for the contemporary art scene. To further attest to his growing popularity, his work as a sculptor currently enhances public spaces nationally and internationally and his works have been featured in Sotheby’s auctions.
His career is full of both solo art exhibitions and group exhibitions, nationally and internationally. His solo exhibitions held by museums, art galleries, and art shows have been featured at : American University Museum, The Frost Art Museum, Boca Raton Museum of Art, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Museum of Latin American Art, The Bass Museum of Art, Susquehanna Art Museum, Polk Museum of Art, Scope Miami Beach Art Fair, Heather James Fine Art, and Art of the World Gallery among others.
Luna has also participated in group exhibitions at: The Boca Museum of Art, The Polk Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Franz Mayer Museum, Heather James Fine Art, Art Basel, Art Miami, Art Stage Singapore, KIAF Art Seoul, Houston Fine Art Fair and Palm Springs Fine Art Fair among others.
Carlos Luna first began his artistic education in the School of Visual Arts (Escuela Provincial de Artes Plasticas) in 1980 at Pinar del Río, Cuba. He continued his education at the Academy of San Alejandro in Havana in 1984. Luna graduated from the National School of the Arts (Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas, ENAP) in Havana, which he attended between 1984 and 1987. Luna then went on to study at the Visual Arts College (Instituto Superior de Arte) in Havana from 1987 to 1991.
Carlos Luna at Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2016
Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2015
Jack Rassmusen, Carlos Luna, and Ramon Osuna at Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; American University Museum,Washington, DC, 2017
Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2015
Carlos Luna at Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2016
Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2015
Camila Luna sitting with “El Gran Mambo.” Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2015
Carlos Luna: El Gran Mambo; American University Museum, Washington, DC, 2008
Carlos Luna working at his studio, 2017
Public Art Project; Zócalo, Fiscalía, Panteón, Puebla, Mexico, 2018
Carlos Luna working with his dog Churro, 2017
Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna; Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL, 2015
Carlos Luna with his three children, Camila, Carlos, and Cristobal, Puebla, Mexico 2001
Deep Line, Drawings by Carlos Luna; Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL, 2017
Carlos and Claudia Luna examining ceramics before an exhibition, Puebla, Mexico, 2010
Carlos Luna: Los Decorados; Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA, 2011
Robert Lennon, Carlos Luna and Ramon Osuna at a solo show, Art Santa Fe, 2007
Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL
Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA
Complejo Cultural Universitario BUAP, Puebla, Mexico
In 2001, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service granted Carlos Luna an EB-1-1 (Alien of Extraordinary Ability) Immigrant Visa. Granted under very special circumstances to applicants who can prove outstanding artistic, scientific, athletic, community, or scholarly performance, the EB-1-1 Visa affords the recipient and his family permanent residence status in the U.S.
Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale, annual Gala El Gran Mambo featuring Carlos Luna's work, 2009
Francisco Hernández, Gerardo Ramos Brito, Carlos Luna, Enrique Aguera, Pedro Angel Palou, Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, Ramón Almela, Elsa Hernandez, conference at the Complejo Cultural BUAP, Puebla, Mex. 2009
Claudia Luna at Deep Line, Drawings by Carlos Luna; Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL, 2017