Carlomagno Pedro Martínez

He is currently the director of the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (MEAPO) in his hometown, a museum dedicated to the handcrafts of the state of Oaxaca, especially those in the Central Valleys region. He was one of the main actors in the founding of this museum in its current form in the 2000s.

Carlomagno’s work is always done completely by hand with the aim of not repeating a piece he had done before exactly. After modeling, the piece is left to dry completely then fired in an underground oven. This oven is completely sealed to limit the amount of oxygen inside and allows for the black color of the pieces. In 1990, during the Encuentro Nacional de Arte Joven in Aguascalientes, Carlomagno’s work caught the attention of painter Manuel Felguérez and art critic Teresa del Conde, who debated whether Carlomagno should be considered an artist or artisan. Oaxaca painter Francisco Toledo considers him to be an artist and has worked to get his pieces shown in Europe.

His work has received recognitions such as First Place in Sculpture, Gran Premio de Arte Popular in Querétaro in 1986, Premio Nacional de la Juventud en Artes Populares in 1988. His work has been featured in five published catalogs. In 2014, Mexico awarded Martinez its National Prize for Arts and Sciences in the popular arts and traditions category.

His first exhibition was in 1983 at the Capilla del Hotel Presidente in Oaxaca city in 1983. In 1985, his work was at the Taller de Artes Plásticas Rufino Tamayo Gallery, and two galleries in Mexico City. In 1988, his work appeared at the Encuentro Nacional de Arte Joven in Aguascalientes. In 1990, his work appeared at Galería de la Raza in San Francisco. In 1995, it appeared at the Mexican consulate in Hamburg, Germany. In 1996, a sculpture group called El mal de amores “ in an expositions called “Enfermo de qué”, related to the origin of disease, toured Europe. In 2002, it appeared at the Parc de la Villette in Paris and the Fine Arts Centre Museum in Chicago. In 2006, it appeared at the Texas Gallery in Houston and the Boston Arts Academy. In 2007, it appeared in the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. In 2008, it appeared at the Friends of Oaxaca Folk Art New York. In 2008, he created a large mural in barro negro at the Baseball Academy in San Bartolo Coyotepec, which was sponsored b the Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation. In 2010, it appeared at the Galerìa Arte Contemporàneo Noel Cayetano in Oaxaca.

Carlomagno began to work with ceramics when he was a child, making figures such as Aztec warriors, Mexican soldiers and clowns, based on images he saw in books. In 1982, when he was 18, he enrolled in the Rufino Tamayo Workshop in the city of Oaxaca. This training allowed him to learn to bridge the gap between handcrafts/folk art and fine art. He received the Premio Nacional de La Juventud Presidencia de la República in 1987 which led to a scholarship to student in the United States from the US Embassy in Mexico in 1989.

Carlomagno Pedro Martínez (born August 17, 1965) is a Mexican artist and artisan in “barro negro” ceramics from San Bartolo Coyotepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He comes from a family of potters in a town noted for the craft. He began molding figures as a child and received artistic training when he was 18. His work has been exhibited in Mexico, the U.S. and Europe and he has been recognized as an artist as well as an artisan. Today, he is also the director of the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (MEAPO) in his hometown. In 2014, Martínez was awarded Mexico's National Prize for Arts and Sciences