In 2014, Martínez was awarded Mexico's National Prize for Arts and Sciences Carlomagno grew up in San Bartolo Coyotepec which has a ceramics tradition that extends back to the pre Hispanic period.

[1] His grandparents as well as parents, Antonio Eleazar Pedro Carreño and Glafira Martínez Barranco, worked the local clay.

[1] Carlomagno began to work with ceramics when he was a child, making figures such as Aztec warriors, Mexican soldiers and clowns, based on images he saw in books.

[4] When he was 31, he began teaching classes to children in Coyotepec, which led to the formation of a large group concentrated on creating figures in clay, which he himself was learning to use the potters’ wheel.

[2] Although most of his pieces are based on traditional characters of Oaxaca, they also include humorous depictions of modern personalities and events.

His pieces are primarily based on local legends and myths as well as mestizo religious traditions such as the burial of Jesus, and Christ on the cross.

[5][2] Two of his popular figures is called “Nuestra Abuela” (Our Grandmother), which is a representation of death and the Zapotec god of fire.

Some of these have included historical and cultural figures, which have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Mexico and abroad and many are part of private collections.

His work has been featured in locations such as the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco and the Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis, Missouri.

[4] In 2008, he created a large mural in barro negro at the Baseball Academy in San Bartolo Coyotepec, which was sponsored b the Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation.