The Cultural Center of Spain in Miami (CCEMiami) presents the a solo exhibition by the cuban artista, Rocio Garcia, Beyond eroticism on May 24th at 7 p.m. There is free admission.

The view has been curated by Elvia Rosa Castro and it is part of the program Out in the Tropics organized by FUNDarte.

This representative compilation is composed of approximately 12 works (paintings) that are part of 8 series.  The series is the manner in which the artist produces work so as to exhibit it later.  In other words, each series has always culminated in an exhibition in some of the most important spaces in the Havana art scene, from Galería Habana, to Factoría Habana, where she exhibited The Mission in the 2015 Havana Biennial.

Her works are listed below in chronological order:

• Serie Geishas de 5ta Avenida/ Geishas of 5th Avenue Series
• Serie Hombres machos, marineros/ Men, machos, sailors Series
• Serie El domador y otros cuentos/ The tamer and other stories Series
• Serie El Thriller /The Thriller Series
• Serie Very, very light and very oscuro (un policía con Alzheimer/ a cop with Alzheimer’s)
• Serie El retorno de Jack el castigador /The return of Jack the punisher series
• The Mission
• Serie Asesinatos/Murders Series

Chronologically speaking, the works date from the mid-1990s to the present.  Some of them are part of the artist’s personal collection, while others are on loan from private collections located in the city of Miami. This makes it possible for audiences in South Florida to witness the artist’s history and trajectory, her understanding of art and contemporary society, as well as her dialgoue with literature, film, and comics.

The theme of this exhibition, summarized in its title, is that the body, eroticism, homoeroticism, and violence in Rocío’s paintings are a pretext, a linguistic alibi that may allow her to talk about the nature of power in its broadest sense.  Another key element in her work is the treatment of the simulation as an essential feature of human beings, as a strategy for survival.

Rocío Garcia is not only one of the best Cuban artists of all time; she is also a cult artist.  Possessing impeccable technical skill, as evidenced in the rhythmic interplay of lines inspired by Matisse with the minimalist and synthetic approach to the color planes appropriated from Bacon, Rocío distinguishes herself as an untiring seeker of beauty and perfection.  This allows her works, which are filled with stories, to escape becoming ornate objects.  Instead, they are nuanced and sophisticated, filled with details and references both obvious and subtle.

Influenced by the sequential nature of film and comic strips, as well as her arsenal of imaginary musings, Rocío creates stories in which the plot unfolds subtly between one canvas and another, or in some cases, even within a single canvas, where various scenes converge and are defined thanks to the planes of color.  In other, more extreme cases, she chooses to create diptychs, triptychs, or planes and pages specifically named as such in their various titles.

The view will be open to the public until June 24th 2018.