Abel Barroso

b. 1971, Pinar del Río, Cuba; lives and works in La Habana, Cuba


A printmaker known for his three dimensional, participatory installations, Abel Barroso uses humor to explore themes such as materiality and wealth, examining life in contemporary Cuba. Barroso began his art career as a woodblock printer, then started using the object itself, the matrix, as material. By taking advantage of the satirical and witty tradition in Cuban art, Barroso masks the political content of his work behind an apparently fresh and lighthearted vision of the situation.

Barroso’s residency at Tamarind took place in 2015 and resulted in five editions, each one focusing on the physicality of shared experiences and the ways we negotiate our place in the contemporary world.

Barroso’s work has been extensively exhibited and can be found as part of the collection of important museums and institutions around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas; The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Phoenix, Arizona; and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida; the Museum of Graphic Art of the Schreiner Foundation (Bade Steben, Germany), The Banff Center (Banff, Canada); and the Wilfredo Lam Center (Havana, Cuba) among others.