Rocío García Santa Clara, Cuba | 1955

The line, the disregard for naturalism, the color as an expressive language, the scene-based nature, the sense of humor, the dysfunctional, the fragility of maleness, the voyeurism and ultimately, García's passion, make her paintings a staging of power in its most complex expression. That is, power as an existential act. Her characters-policemen, sailors, nocturnal hustlers, bartenders, rabbits, punishers, geishas-are metaphors, that more than stereotypes judged at face value, represent an exercise of personal search. 

In many cases I involve love with the situations and what is around it. Eroticism creates problems. Love transcends eroticism, of course, but if we stay in the erotic... Love can even cause wars. I am a Freudian in that sense. There are those who limit themselves from doing things and have thoughts beyond what they appear, all the falsehood that exists in relationships is because of internal conflicts that people have, that they are not free enough to express. That's what I like to point about, subtle, because not even one has the answer, that's why I do the series, and give clues, and play with the cinematic. Life is a performance. There are people who label me as a painter of the gay world, but that is a superficial view. My painting is about ambiguity. Ambiguity and power. Power and the theater of life. 

Indissoluble from her voice as a painter is her work as a teacher, her Cathedra Los Nuevas Fieras, with its deep modern roots in the expressive qualities of color, has been a breeding ground for dozens of Cuban painters. Rocío's works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland, Spain, Cuba, France, Russia, Germany, Argentina, Venezuela, Panamá, India, the Dominican Republic and the United States and her work is held in private collections around the world. 

She lives and works in Havana, Cuba.