Rocío García

Born in: 1955
From: Villa Clara, Cuba
Lives and works: Havana, Cuba
Represented by: El Apartamento

UN goals

Biography

With a stark rejection of Latin America’s macho culture, Rocío García's pictorial scenes depict human beings giving free rein to their inner desires. Her bright-colored acrylic and oil paintings follow the structure of comic books which help her construct linear storytellings and give some guidance to her viewership.

One of her most known canvases, El Pelotón, shows a military unit dressed only with boots, very revealing underwear and a mask, thereby heightening the nudity of the bodies. The dichotomy between masculine pride and the homoeroticism of the scene connects her work with Adi Nes' series Soldiers, both showing the inherent fragility of virile attitudes and the unimportance of such views compared to love.

García’s work delves on domination, on how power corrupts us and our proneness to abuse it. Her paintings call to mind New Objectivity painters like Christian Schad for her sharp lines and her debauchery scenes. Sensuousness and power go hand in hand in showing fractures of a system based on oppression suggesting the need to re-examine it.

Career highlights

Solo shows

2020, Atelier NG Havana, Havana, Cuba: Sakura
2019, Galería Villa Manuela, XIII Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba: Beliki Tuman (The Big Fog)
2018, Centro Cultural Español en Miami, Florida, USA: Beyond Eroticism
2010, Galería Luz y Suárez del Villar, Madrid, Spain: Very very light and very oscuro… (un policía con Alzheimer)
2007, Havana Galerie, Zürich, Switzerland: La Dama de la Patica Caliente

Group shows

2018, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany: Art x Cuba. Contemporary Perspectives since 1989
2017, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA: Wild Noise
2014, Colombus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, USA: Cuban forever
2010, Magnan Metz, New York, USA: Tonight, Alicia Alonso dances here
2010, Cheng Xin Dong Space for Contemporary Art Gallery, Beijing, China: “Cuba Avant-Garde” in China