Lisandra Isabel Garcia: Detail from the series Teenager Artist

Lisandra Isabel Garcia (Havana, 1989)

“In my work I propose the evasion of reality as a concept of art and creation…I build, in an almost autobiographical way, my own introspective world, where my fantasies of escape unfold and from where I attempt escape. I do it from my life story, my experience, and my own universe. ”

Lisandra García is a mixed media, installation artist and painter who has experimented with the use of glass, photography and a range of other mediums in her work. As recently as 2013 she graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana’s prestigious graduate art school, after studying at the San Alejandro Academy.

Works included in this show are from a large body of distinctive work created by García, entitled Adolescent artist self-portrait, marks the time she began to reflect on her teen years. García creates her own personal world representing objects from her domestic environment, in her words, ‘to highlight my taste, motivation, and sensibilities, and reflect on the permeability of the environment that surrounds us.’ García acknowledges some may find her images simplistic, but she takes refuge in objects that have meanings or memories for her. ‘I use them to disconnect, to entertain, to not think about the problems bothering me.’ While dealing with global generational themes of femininity, García does not intend to enter ‘a gender discourse.’ She is attracted to artists such as Louise Bourgeois because she explores areas “such as family, sex, domestic problems, and her womanhood”.

Garcia has already exhibited in collective shows in Argentina, Belgium, Columbia, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the US. In March 2016 García curated a European show of work by 16 women artists, Hints from Cuba: Feminine Proposals. Her awards include, amongst others, the First Prize and Special Prize of the Municipal Department of Culture of Habana del Este and First Prize of the XVI Erotic Art Exhibition at the Fayad Jamís Gallery, Arts and Literature Center, Habana del Este.