El Encierro (2004) Sculpture by German Garcia Cardona

Germán García Cardona, Colombian “taurino” sculptor, was born in Santa Rosa de Cabal, Risaralda, in 1941. In 1960 he entered the University of Caldas, where he graduated as a veterinarian. His great loves are animals, art and the “fiesta brava”, the bullfight. In 1952 he attended his first bullfight at the opening of the Manizales bullring. In 1968 he began his career as a taxidermist, having stuffed 500 heads. Twenty-five years later he moved toward classical sculpture, creating works out of 32 tons of bronze, as well as 1400 sculptures and 218 fundiciones to the present day.

He has been distinguished by the Veterinarians’ Association (ACOVEZ) as one of the 100 most outstanding veterinarians in 100 years of the profession, out of the 14,000 that there are currently in the country. He was given the task of sculpting the statue of the Unknown Veterinarian, which will be unveiled at the Congress of Veterinary Medicine, to take place in Bogotá in 2004.

He has been an active member of the Colombian Association of Veterinarians and Zootecnistas (VEPA); president of the Ninth Congress of Veterinarians and Zootecnistas in Barranquilla in 1974 and president of the Latin American Congress of Surgery and Small Animal Clinic, in San Andrés in 1987. He is part of the gallery of the “Long live the Creators” (Vivan los Creadores) program of the Medellín city government, where he shares this honor with the sculpting maestros Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, Fernando Botero, Deborah Arango, Cárdenas Isaza, thirteen in total.

Since July 14, 2000, date in which he presented his last exposition in the Hotel El Prado, to the present date he has not had expositions in the city of Barranquilla, with the motive of “arte se encuentra se encuentra secuestrado”. On October 15, 2002, he began work again.

• Nationality: COLOMBIA
• Date of birth : 1941
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Colombian Artists