Joan Cardells was one of the most prominent Valencian artists of the last third of the 20th century. He was a virtuoso of drawing and a renovator of sculpture, he was founder of Equipo Realidad and participated in the Estampa Popular movement. After the Equipo Realidad dissolved, Cardells began a very personal career in 1976 that led him to work with drawings and sculptures made of fiber cement, sewn cardboard and uralite. Thus, he explored the possibilities of graphite with its well-known three-dimensional chiaroscuros "developing a personal, interesting and coherent work," in the words of critic Francisco Calvo Serraller. 

His work constitutes a celebration of drawing that sometimes solidifies into sculptures that translate his permanent desire for material and conceptual research. The exploration of the relationship that exists between drawing and sculpture usually focuses on the representation of different hollow container objects with which he expresses his reflections on the void. These graphite drawings respond to an exercise of constant synthesis and formal abstraction, increasingly concentrated, where the suggested container, container or receptacle ends up becoming the content itself, freed from all referential symbology. 

He received awards such as the Cáceres Prize for Sculpture and the Alfons Roig Prize for Plastic Arts from the Provincial Council of Valencia, and his work has been exhibited at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Nueva York, Arabako Foru Aldundia and Arte Eder Museoa, among others. He is considered a key figure of contemporary Spanish art. A great draftsman who gave dignity to everyday household objects.