Felipe Cardeña is a street artist, known for floral patterns, pop art figures and modern collages, many of which are aimed at challenging consumer society.[1]
He was born in Spain in 1979, but lived in Cuba for some time.[1] Operating in an anonymous manner, akin to the British artist Banksy, he has held three exhibitions at the Venice Biennale from 2009 to 2013, and has exhibited in Milan,[2][3] London,[4] Chile and China.[1][5]
His style of anonymous graffiti and street art earned him the name "il Banksy latino" (the Latin Banksy)[6] and the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera called him "misterioso in stile Banksy” (Banksy-style mysterious).[5] The Italian art critic Gillo Dorfles has described Cardeña's work as "kitsch elitario" (elite kitsch).[6] The newspaper Corriere della Sera wrote in May 2008: "The only thing we know is that he was born in Balaguer, Spain, 29 years ago. The rest of the information we have regarding Felipe Cardeña, mysterious Banksy-style art, is fragmentary and contradictory. His floral collages – whose technique was probably developed in jail – and his floral stickers appear everywhere: his slogan is Power Flower".[7]
Vittorio Sgarbi wrote that "Felipe Cardeña proposes the amateur technique of collage pursuing a repetitive and obsessive iconography as the daily rosary of a cloistered nun".[8]