Carmen Maria Machado Curates Rocío García Exhibition at Leslie-Lohman Museum

Writer Carmen Maria Machado, known for Her Body and Other Parties and the Lambda Literary Award-winning memoir In the Dream House, has curated “The Object of Power is Power,” an exhibition of works by contemporary Cuban artist Rocío García at New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. The show, on view from May 6 to September 20, 2026, features about a dozen pieces exploring themes of power, pain, desire, sexuality, and fear. Machado, who is of Cuban descent, collaborated with García, who lives in Havana, despite logistical challenges of bringing art out of Cuba. She describes her curatorial approach as a creative response rather than an art-historical one, noting the narrative quality of García's work. Machado contributed text to the exhibition that interrogates the relationship between pleasure and terror. The exhibition is on view through September 20.