Rocío García:
The Object of Power is Power
Rocío García
6 de May – 20 de Septiembre, 2026
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York
Over five decades of painting, Rocío García (b. 1955, Santa Clara, Cuba; lives Havana) has developed a distinctive visual language that draws from a diverse set of literary, artistic, and other cultural influences—from film noir and comics to Henri Matisse, Franz Kafka, and Havana nightlife—to explore shifting power dynamics in scenes both absurdist and (homo)erotic. The figures she renders in The Object of Power is Power exist at the margins of society and the imagination, caught within existential, seemingly irresolvable situations that darkly mirror systems of authority. Within them, her work creates spaces for humor and the imagined collapse of entrenched power structures. The work of guest curator and award-winning Cuban-American author Carmen Maria Machado is deeply resonant in its use of body horror, speculative fiction, and queer-feminist narrative: she brings an incisive and intuitive reading of García’s work to the exhibition. _Texto curatorial (extracto)
NOTICIAS RELACIONADAS
En un momento de renovado interés por la representación del cuerpo y el desnudo en el arte contemporáneo de Nueva York, la obra de Rocío García destaca por su exploración provocadora de las dinámicas de poder, el deseo y la sexualidad desde una mirada narrativa y profundamente política. Sus pinturas, cargadas de tensión erótica y simbolismo, consolidan su presencia como una de las voces más singulares del panorama artístico cubano actual.


Themes of power, pain, desire, sexuality, and fear animate much of Machado’s work as well as García’s, making a multimedia collaboration between the two creatives feel especially apropos. Machado, who is also of Cuban descent, notes that while working with García, who lives in Havana, posed certain logistical challenges—“since bringing stuff out of Cuba is pretty hard right now”—encountering the artist’s work in person was a revelation.





