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Click on the image to see the inside of the book in Vimeo




Machu Picchu, the astounding city, raised on a peak, a sculpted mountain

whose vertiginous slopes dominate from a height of almost three thousand

feet the curves of the rivers that embrace it: the Machu Picchu, high sacred

place of the empire, sentinel of four worlds, between the sky and the earth,

between the mountain and the jungle”

César Paternosto. The Stone and the Thread: Andean Roots of Abstract Art

University of Texas Press. 1996. Wachtel, p. 168. 1976,


“In the walls made of regular courses of ashlar blocks, the effect of

bossage and the beveled and countersunk joints heighten the animation

of surfaces –in themselves more monotonous- thorough the play of light

and shadow, which is rarely so stark as beneath the pitiless light of the

Andean highlands. Here and there, enigmatic protuberances like

“knots”, “breasts”, or “sprouts” accentuate the bas-relief character of

the walls. Doors, windows, and trapezoidal niches, obsessively

repeated, complement the austere symbolic design of Inca architecture,

its declaration of cultural identity”

César Paternosto. The Stone and the Thread: Andean Roots of Abstract Art

University of Texas Press. 1996. Paternosto, p.49. 1996,



“I touched the stones with my hands; I followed the wavy, unpredictable

line, like that of the rivers, in which the rock blocks meet. In the dark street,

in the silence, the wall seemed alive, on the palm of my hands flamed the

juncture of the stones that I had touched "

“They were bigger and stranger than I had imagined the stones of the Inca

wall they boiled under the whitewashed second floor that on the side of the

narrow street, was blind. I remembered, then, the Quechua songs that repeat

a constant pathetic phrase: "Yawar mayu", river of blood; "yawar unu", bloody

water; "Puk-tik, yawar k’ocha", lake of blood that boils; “Yawar wek’e’ ’tears of

blood. Could it not be said "Yawar rumi", blood stone, or "puk-tikk, yawar

rumi", boiling blood stone? The wall was static. But it boiled down all its lines

and the surface was changing, like that of the rivers in the summer, which

have a peak like that. Towards the center of the flow, which is the fearful zone,

the most powerful”.

Jose Maria Arguedas. Los Rios Profundos. Losada. Buenos Aires. Pg. 25-26. 1964

puk-tikk, yawar rumi”,






Carlos Llerena Aguirre has published woodcuts in international journals, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, El Comercio, books, magazines, children’s books, and international newspapers. His woodcuts are in the Library of Congress Permanent Collection. Washington, DC, USA. Franz Masareel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium. Museo del Grabado Lima Peru, MAC Lima, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. Lima, Peru. Venice Printmaking Studio. Venice, Italy. Douro International Printmaking Biennale. Douro, Portugal.  Museo del Grabado, Instituto Peruano Norteamericano, Lima. Peru. Norwegian International Printmaking Biennale, Fredrikstad, Norway.

He represented Peru and the USA with his woodcuts in the Douro Printmaking Biennale, Douro, Portugal. Hilo South Pacific International Printmaking Biennale. Hawai. ICPNA 5th International Printmaking Biennale. Lima, Peru. Norsk Internasjonal Grafikk Biennale, Norway. The Jubilam X Internationale Grafik Triennale, Fredrikstad, Norway. Pacific States Biennial National Print Exhibition, Hawai. The Xylon Graphische International Triennale, Switzerland, La Bienal del Grabado de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, USA. The Krakow Biennale of Printmaking, Polonia. Biennale de Grabado. Arequipa, Peru.

He holds an MFA, in Cinematography from the University of Miami. An MFA, in painting, an M.Ed, in Art Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and an MA, in Printmaking from Hunter College. The City University of New York City. 

His video art and documentaries have been officially selected in international venues: FLAVIA[2,  Festival Latinoamericano de Videoarte, Buenos Aires, Argentina. TOLFA International Short Film Festival, Roma, Italia. Museo de Arte, Parana. (permanent collection) Argentina. Cortoacquario VI Festival Internazionale Cortometraggi, Juried documentary, Santa Marinella, Roma, Italia. Festival Internacional Cine Toluca, FICT  Mexico. Bideodromo. Naziateko Zine eta Bideo Esperimentalen Laialdia. Bilboko, Bereginen Museoa. 1er Festival Latinoamericano de Cortometrajes Ambientales. Albufera, Argentina. Optic Nerve XII, Film Festival. Juried exhibit. Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, North Miami, FL. OMNI, Urban Intervention, Juried exhibit. Art Basel, Wynwood, FL. CLOSE UP. A Riesgo, Pasaguero, Juried exhibit. Video Projections, Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México. Ischia International Film Festival, Napoli, Italy.

The book/DVD Saynatakuna was published and exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lima Peru. saynatakuna.com/
His latest feature ethnographic documentary is:
href="https://qeswachaka.wordpress.com/">https://qeswachaka.wordpress.com/

Recipient of the Frans Masareel Centrum artist in residence in Belgium. The Venice Printmaking Studio in Venice. Italy and The TAKT artist residence in Frederikshain, East Berlin, Germany. Artist residence at the University of Liverpool. England.  and Distinguished Professor at Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

He is currently a Professor at the University of Miami. USA

http://www.carlosllerena.com
https://vimeo.com/carlosllerenaaguirre