Sebastián (born Enrique Carbajal on November 16, 1947) is an artist based in Mexico, and is considered the country's foremost living sculptor. His smaller scale work includes jewelry, sacristies, garden sculptures, and painting. However, he is most known for his monumental structures constructed in iron or concrete, which decorate cities throughout the world, from San Antonio, Texas to Osaka, Japan.[1]
Enrique Carbajal (Sebastián) was born in the small town of Santa Rosalía de Camargo, Chihuahua on November 16, 1947.[2] He lived in Chihuahua until he began studying in the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City in 1964.
When studying in Mexico City, he survived by working at restaurants and buying clothing to sell it for a profit in Chihuahua.[3] He studied in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (National School of Plastic Arts) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Persisting with deep appreciation for Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso, he won first place in the 1965 Annual Exposition of the National Plastic Arts School at UNAM.[2]
In 1968 Sebastián had his own show featuring his ceramic work in the Museum of Art of Ciudad Juárez.[3] After completing his formal studies he continued his work with short-lived schools and movements such as the "Salon Independiente". He put on his second individual exposition, where he displayed ostensibly simple paper carton works that he called "desplegables" (folders). These seemingly small works became the base of ideas for his later monumental works made with tons of iron and concrete.[3]
In 2007 Sebastián design and build the sculpute "La Gran Puerta de México" (The Gateway to Mexico) in the northeastern city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas, Mexico