Julio Martínez Barnetche (b. 1974, México City) is a prolific sculptor of precious and semi-precious stones, woods and metals. His oeuvre entails not only sculpture but also furniture, jewellery, as well as tableware and cooking devices in volcanic stone. His work has a profound strength and is developed with a masterly approach to the use of materials and techniques.

Julio often takes his raw materials as he encounters them naturally and does not intervene too much, especially in the case of stones and wood. He never cuts a tree, he finds the wood 

in nature, in the garden of friends or at architectural salvage sites. In his words: “My lifelong relationship within the small communities nestled in the mountainous landscape has become an integral and intimate part of my life and an inspiration for my creativity”.

Direct carving masters in stone are belonging to a genre that is more and more disappearing. The work of Julio Martínez Barnetche is of high technical mastery combined with a creative fluidity that has the capacity to reveal the aesthetics hidden in the crystalline structures of the stones. Martínez Barnetche, who is an established pioneer of the direct carving technique, continues to stretch the limits within his three-dimensional work to new heights.