Cardenas was born in Cuba. In 1949 graduates in the Academy San Alejandro, Cuba. In the artist´s work there are three main periods: His initial stage in Havana; until his arrival and settlement in Paris, using wood recurrently. This period is characterized by totem morphology from 1951 to 1964. Affected by the Parisian fascination for African sculpture and surrealism, Cardenas creates strangely elongated and distorted figurations that invite the viewer to touch and enter their space. There is a sensuality about this tall bronze dancing couple with its rhythmic interplay of solids and voids that gives an almost musical vitality and intimacy despite its huge size. The second period from 1965 to 1982, characterized by the use of marble, granite, basalt in his creations and the third seems the artist seems to be in possesion of a new synthesis; sculpture attempts another figurative subject, graceful, also having a kind humour. Collective exhibitions: 1959 Cinq Jeunes Sculpteurs de L´Ecole de París; Exposición Internacional de Surrealismo; Realites Nouvelles; Salon de Mai, Paris; he also exhibited at Salon de mai in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964. In 1965 Internationale Biennale, Tokyo; Biennale de Sculpture, Antwerp; Babel 65; Musée National d´Art Moderne Paris; Exposition Internacionale du Surréalisme, Galerie de l´Oeil. 1968 Surrealistics Exhibition "Princip slati", Czechoslovakia; Salon de la Jeune Sculpture; 1969 Avignon Festival Biennale de Sculpture, Antwerp; Musée de Saint-Germain en Laye; Salon de la Jeune Sculpture; Salon de Mai, París. Huitième Biennale, Menton; Surrealism? Moderna Museum, Stockholm; 1971 International Exhibition of Surrealism, Cologne. 1987 Yorkshire Open Air Museum, England. Prizes: 1961 Sculpture prize at the Biennale of París.
