(1974 - present)
Born in Mexico City in 1974, Julio Martínez Barnetche has a unique relationship with stone, using it in combination with precious stones, wood and metals to create mesmerising sculptures, furniture and jewellery.
Barnetche studied industrial design at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) at Xochimilco in Mexico City and started working with stone in 1995 at the studio of sculptor, painter and architect Fernando Arnaud.
By 1999 Barnetche had started his own studio, Taller C. Tlasahuates, in Zacualpan de Amilpas, Morelos and he still works from there with wood, stone and metal. Barnetche works directly with local stone and other found objects, which he sometimes salvages from gardens and reclamation sites. He also forges metals such as brass and works their shapes into the stone and wood.
“I search for long and hard processes, mimicking the very nature of stone,” Julio Martínez Barnetche.
The artist’s intense relationship with stone is immediately obvious and striking, with many of his sculptures and even some of his wooden furniture having a primeval, ancient quality to them. Items such as his Cistern Water Filler almost seem as if they might creak into life at any moment; even though they’re made of stone and wood, they feel as if they’re full of very ancient awareness.
Despite their somewhat paleontological demeanour, Barnetche’s chairs, sculptures, lamps and jewellery pieces have very modern names, such as Plastic, Box Lamp and Space Balloon. This may well serve to remind us that however far we go as a species, even into space, we’re still connected to the earth and the past.
Barnetche’s jade sculptures featured in a 2013 - 2014 exhibition called Mare Petreos at Mexico City’s Palacio de Miniera and two sculptures - Dove Spawn and Penguin - are included in the
US Government’s Art in Embassies (1) programme.