He was part of the generation of Cuban artists that includes Wifredo Lam and Agustín Cárdenas, that studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Havana, Cuba.

Continuing on to his more formative academic years, in Havana he attended El Colegio de Belen,[3] a Jesuit preparatory school, where he excelled in the classes involving art and history.

The school wanted him to go through a preliminary process for two years prior to attending, however he managed to prove himself with a clay carving that he had made that following weekend and they accepted him as a student on the spot.

At the Academy, Carbonell studied under the guidance of Juan José Sicre, a former student of Antoine Bourdelle, Rodin's favorite disciple.

Carbonell met and worked alongside some great artists, Fidelio Ponce, Victor Manuel, Amelia Pelaez,Roberto Estopiñan and many others.

At San Alejandro, artistic excellence meant one must measure up to maximum standards or smash it into pieces and start again, that was the norm.

His classical and religious period developed between 1945 and 1959 some of his many important commissions included the stone carvings as bas-reliefs of the Twelve Stations of the Cross, along with The Last Rites located at Las Lomas Del Jacan in San Miguel de los Baños, Matanzas province.

[6] A life size wood carving of a crucifixion for the chapel at the Covadonga sugar mill in Las Villas, Cuba.

The sculpture became part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana; it appeared on the cover of Reader's Digest magazine in May 1956.

He worked in various aspects of television and production whereby he won an award in set design for the "Union De La Cronica Tele-Radial Diaria"[2] in the second festival.

By 1954 Carbonell left for Europe visiting countless museums with the goal of experiencing for himself the opportunity to stand in front of great masterpieces to appreciate them and learn.

He also had a high-end luxury boutique of decorative objects, which ultimately provided him with an ulterior motive of a purchasing trip, he was granted a visa to travel to the United States.

A very prominent doctor, Paul Henkind,[10] then Chief of the Department of Ophthalmology at Monte Fiore Hospital, NYC, noticed the incredible sculpture and stated to Mr. Materna "I didn't know you owned a Rodin"?

The gallery exhibited Carbonell's sculptures alongside European Masters and French Impressionist paintings of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Braque, Chagall, Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Picasso, Gauguin, Renoir and others.

Rounded volumes replaced the elongated anatomical shapes, present in "Lovers", "Madonna of the Moon" and "Figurative Form".

[13] Soon enough, nine months later his father Manuel and his sisters Angela and Josefina with her two-year-old daughter, Clara, were able to leave Cuba and come to Miami.

[16] The awards formally presented by The South Florida Entertainment Writers Associations (SFEWA), an organization of major media theater critics from Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, on November 15, 1976, they selected Carbonell as the namesake.

[17][18] In 1976, Carbonell held a monographic exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum and Art Center,[19] in Miami, Florida, on view at the opening of their newest gallery, where he introduced more than 20 of his latest works.

This sculpture is now part of The Gerald R. Ford, Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is technically a branch office of The National Archives and Records Administration Collection, that the Federal government oversees.

His distinctive personal style is easily identifiable and recognized by the consistency in the originality of his works, the uniqueness of his interpretations and the sense of universal appeal that he imparted to his sculptures.

[23] Having won a competition in 1989 to create a statue of the Cuban Apostle Jose Martí for the San Carlos Institute in Key West, Florida.

Conquering this challenge, in 1990 Carbonell moved to Pietrasanta, (Holy Stone) Italy to carve a 6-foot marble sculpture that portrays Martí with his left arm extended, as if to greet visitors, while the right hand rest on a bundle of wheat surrounded by the Cuban flag.

[26] Carbonell created the 53-foot bronze public monument "The Pillar of History and the Tequesta Family", located mid-span on the bridge.

The pillar illustrates a carved graphical narration of the lives of the Tequesta Indians, Miami's first inhabitants, featuring 150 figures.

In the niches at the supporting piers are four 4-foot by 8-foot bronze bas reliefs honoring the quintessential Miami pioneers Henry Flagler, Dana A. Dorsey, William and Mary Brickell, Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Julia Tuttle, depicting them in their historical perpetual settings.

Twelve bronze bas-reliefs of Florida fauna are located at the base of the flagpoles on the walk ways of both sides of the bridge.

[27] "Little Miracles",[2] certainly an invaluable opportunity, I was in love with the project, first because the Tequesta's are a fascinating people, secondly, because it was an important monument, with such tremendous dimensions.

While I was in Pietrasanta, Italy to commence this two-year project, having finished all the bas-reliefs and having completed carving 3/5 of the pillar, I suffered a stroke.

[31] His modern monumental works, created in his unique and distinctive personal style, are part of important art collections and public spaces, "Couple in Love" adorns the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Miami, "Lovers" is located at the entrance of the Carbonell Condominium,[32] named in the artist honor, "Torso" formally at Selby's Five Point Park, downtown Sarasota then at the von Liebig Art Center in Naples, Florida.