Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present, INTERMEZZO, Cuban artist Rocío García’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This exhibition, comprised of eight new paintings, showcases García’s ability to transport the viewer into intimate moments with characters caught in between the shadows before their story’s climax. These loose narratives as a collective whole, embedded with deeper meaning upon further inspection, evoke a cinematic quality rendered with structured lines and highly chromatic colors where intentionally placed lighting and objects further support the paintings narrative suggestions. What results are works that often border the surreal and challenge gender roles while taking a humorous approach to human relationships.
Rocío García (b. 1955 in Santa Clara, Cuba ) graduated from the San Alejandro School of Fine Arts in 1975 and received her MFA at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad, Soviet Union, in 1983 present day St. Petersburg, Russia. Considered one of the most important female contemporary Cuban painters, García has become known for her narrative painting style, which often explores themes of gender, sexuality, and identity.
Her work, since the early eighties of the twentieth century, has brought to painting one of the most controversial themes of Cuban society: eroticism and sexuality as tools of liberation and counterpoint to power, norms, and coercion. Without gender affiliations, their nude or semi-nude bodies have embodied from the ultra-sensuality of the geisha, to the questioned male virility; the allusions to the military castes, the acephalous sexes, double standards, lasciviousness and pleasure. A universe, in short of dissident, activist, inescapable and necessary bodies to understand society, politics and ideology.
Her distinct artistic style conjugates passions and experiences from her childhood, incorporating elements from comics, cinema, literature, love, and eros. García's work is characterized by a disregard for naturalism, the use of color as an expressive language, and a sense of humor and voyeurism. Her paintings often feature metaphorical characters like policemen, sailors, bartenders, and rabbits that represent an exploration of power dynamics and personal identity.
Recent solo exhibitions of García's work include El Gran Chef (alias Patica de Pollo) at EL APARTAMENTO, Havana, Cuba (2023); Bellas Flores del Mal at Thomas Nickels Project, New York, NY (2021); Sakura at Atelier NG Havana, Havana, Cuba (2020); Beliki Tuman (The Big Fog) at Villa Manuela Gallery, 13th Havana Biennial, Havana (2019) and Very, very Light and very dark (A policeman with Alzheimer's) at Luz y Suárez del Villar Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2010).
Other notable exhibitions include Geishas or Pictures of the Floating World, 23 and 12 Art Center, Havana, Cuba (1997); Tribute to Sappho, Common Language Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Michigan (1997); My Little Pieces for Sale, Racklan Building East Gallery (1997); Male Sailor Men, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba (1999), The Tamer and Other Stories, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba (2003); The Thriller National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba (2007); Sassy Lady Havana Gallerie, Zürich, Switzerland (2007); Very Very Light…and Very Dark: a Policeman with Alzheimer, La Casona Gallery, Havana, Cuba (2010); Hidden Realities, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, New York ( 2011); and The Return of Jack, the Punisher… , Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba (2012).
Rocío García has received various national and international awards, including the National Culture Distinction from the Ministry of Culture in Cuba (2005); the National Award of Illustration from the Cuban Book Institute (2000); Mention of Honor, Second Painting Biennial of the Caribbean and Central America from the Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1994) and Special Mention of Painting, Hall of the City from the Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana (1991).
