Ori Carino was born in a loft and functioning art gallery on Houston Street in Manhattan in 1982, and raised among several pivotal artists of the 1980s Post-DaDa art movement of the Lower East Side. At age 14, Carino completed his first public spray paint mural, and his first book cover was published (“Creative Ability Development”). Carino attended Cooper Union and Parsons High School, and completed his studies in the intensive painting/installation studio programme at SMFA, Boston. He received the Dean’s discretionary grant, and created the “Block 421 Project,” which included Carino’s first major Brick Sculpture. Carino has painted numerous public murals, paintings and commissions in the LES and greater NYC. His “Murals on Mars Bar” series continued for nine years, until the building was demolished in 2010. Carino first exhibited at Gallery 128 (2002), and has exhibited internationally since 2006. His work is included in several important collections, including the Pao Collection in Hong Kong and the Venet Collection in New York. In 2007, Carino met the artist Benjamin Armas and they began producing an extensive body of collaborative work in sculpture, installation and painting. Benjamin Armas was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1985. Armas comes from a family of noted artists, including his grandfather, master of the modern fable, Alfredo Armas Alfonzo. After emigrating to New York at age 11, Armas attended Cooper Union High School’s outreach programmes before receiving his degree in Architecture at the Pratt Institute. In 2014, he completed construction of his first major residential project in upstate New York. Armas currently maintains a full-time art studio in Brooklyn, New York, focused on developing sculpture, photography and installation art.
Ori Carino & Benjamin Armas
