Carlos Mare139 Rodriguez is an internationally celebrated sculptor/painter who has been at the
forefront of the graffiti/street art culture since 1976 where he began painting trains alongside many
of the great Style Masters of his generation. This rich history of not just living the culture and
surviving the South Bronx in its depleted state gave birth to what many call the largest art
movement in history is what makes his enduring career as an artist so prolific.

Reclaiming that history, Mare139 in 1986 revolutionized the genre, which was in its post graffiti
stage, by creating graffiti wild style sculpture in metal. Leading his generation into a new world of
possibility with graffiti style writing sculpture, he pioneered a vision that had, before him, no
reference outside of the painted subways. Early on his work evolved from its very obvious
connection to graffiti and bridged over into the realm of true modernist sculpture that was influenced
by the Cubist, Futurist and Constructivist movements. Through out this period 87-92 his effort was
to 'extend the dialogue' between these periods of art in order to create a completely new art for his
generation.

Mare139 has consistently brought innovation to the genre’s aesthetic and vocabulary. His work
thrives in its own process, linking itself from the early subway paintings to its more modern stages,
he sees it as one continual development that is regenerative and transformative allowing him to
further delve into abstraction in metal yet preserving the hidden codes of graffiti technique.
Not wholly abandoning the street art scene in 2006 he illegally placed a massive scale sculpture
titled WU StyleWriter in a public park in Wuppertal Germany where it created a sensation because
of its unannounced installation. The locals marveled at the work, kids climbed on it and city officials
took notice after 3 days where then the artist swiftly 'stole' his own work. Once in the press the Mare
accused the city of stealing the work which he had offered up as a gift, the sculpture currently
resides in London.

Most recently 2008 he completed a residency project titled "FreesStyle Archityper" at Brighton
University in England where he created an indoor sculpture installation (approx. 50ftX20ft) using a
process devoid of models and drawings, as well as working directly on metal the onsite exhibition
was a milestone for the artist as it was originally conceived and incubated some 22 years earlier.
Aside from his fine art he has also earned the prestigeous 2006 Webby Award for his launch of the
Hip Hop documentary Style Wars website, which is considered to be one of the most influential
documentaries on the subject of Graffiti/Street art and Hip Hop culture in the early 80s.

Not only anaward winnerbut an award designer,Mare 139 designed and created the award for the annual
BET Black Entertainment Award show. Recipients include Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jay Z,
Prince Snoop Dog, Beyonce, Kobe Bryant, Usher, Serena Williams, 50 Cent and many others. He is
a film novice who worked closely with Director/Actor Robert DeNiro on the film The Good Shepherd
as a documenter of ‘the making of the movie’ and as member of Mr. DeNiro’s editing team. In
addition his writing has been published in famed photographer Martha Coopers brilliant photo book
Street Play that documents the imaginative ‘play’ of children in the streets of NYC in the late 1970’s.
His writings capture the creative play and dangers of his youth in the South Bronx.

Currently exhibiting in the USA and abroad he is taking on his preparing his largest project in which
he will be 'sculpturally re-skinning' part of a building, with which he aims to ask if 'graffiti' is a
medium to a surface what is it when you attach a sculpture based from graffiti?