In Cuban artist Aimee Garcia's work, not all is at it may seem. Her works are quietly powerful deconstructions of traditional female imagery. She incorporates her own self-portrait within a consciously constructed mise-en-scene of female bodies, balls of thread, needles, and hair. This deliberate juxtaposition of her face with traditionally recognized tropes of femininity force the viewer into recognizing the singularity of her identity against generic female art historical representations.
"I mix signs and symbolic artifacts of femininity with my own face, in a fashion that is a reference to myself without being really autobiographical, creating meetings between history and my personal life. I use ambiguity to deconstruct myths and stereotypes that have made women the object rather than the subject."
Aimee Garcia was born in 1972 in Matanzas, Cuba. She attended the Escuela Profesional de Artes Plásticas y Ballet in Camagüey and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in La Habana. Garcia recently participated as Artist-in-Residence at the Art in General in New York City (1998). Her recent exhibitions include El canto de Penélope (Penelope's Song) at the Moviemiento Cubano por la Paz in La Habana, (1997); inclusion in Expoarte Guadalajara 97, Foro Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo in Guadalajara (1997); and the '97 Kwangju Biennale at the Kwangju Museum in South Korea (1997). Garcia has also exhibited in Spain, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Austria, and Israel. Her work has been collected by Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana.