Garaicoa’s understanding of transitions and the multiplicity of place is reflected in works such as Esquirlas/Splinters (1996-1999). The series of photographs sourced from his archive were taken during his trip to Angola in 1996. The work proposes an archaeology of the Cuito-Menongue road, which served as a road for transporting military supplies and contributed to keeping an active first line of battle, during the Angolan war. The route along the Cuito-Menongue road consisted of abandoned war materials exposing the structures and genealogies associated with war together with geopolitics that cause them. Printed on metal in irregular shapes that seem to fly in the air, the photographs explore the idea of fragments that come to us in the form of memory, narrating stories that seem lost in time.

The large-scale installation, Línea rota de horizonte establishes a dialogue between the structures of the city and their relationship with nature — highlighting the ways in which nature is in many cases abused or neglected. The installation is based on the American sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis), a common sight in the streets of Madrid. Made from bronze, wood, soil, trunks and metal, a single tree emerges from a group of stumps arranged in grids, just as we find the at the urban space and remarking here the compressed landscape. 

For various years, Garaicoa has been working on a series of black and white mural photographs of different buildings in Havana integrated with thread drawings. In a new turn of this series we find the works Untitled (Cayuelo) (2018); Untitled (Tree - Miramar) (2021), Untitled (The Autumn of the Patriarch) (2021), Untitled (Tree – Cerro) (2021) where he moves the eye to the relation of the trees and garden with the city, making an statement about the tension between urbanism and nature. The drawings and photos in the exhibition are directly dialoguing with the central installation Broken Line of Horizon and develops in the interest that the artist has for years in concepts of the gardens and the non-natural processes inside the city.

The series of drawings in Models C (Models of Confinement) (2020) consider the symbolism of ruins and spaces of confinement. A built structure is tightly wound to a tall tree as a metaphor for restraint and captivity. The drawings are a visual tale of the nightmares of repressive architectural planning and point to the necessity to change the order of things. 

Carlos Garaicoa (B. 1967 Havana, Cuba) studied thermodynamics and later painting at the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana (1989–1994).

Garaicoa has had numerous solo exhibitions including recently at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2020); PEM Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (2020); Lunds Konsthall and Skissernass Museum, Lund (2019); Parasol Unit Foundation, London (2018); Fondazione Merz, Torino (2017); MAAT Museu de Arte, Arquitectura e Tecnologia, Lisbon (2017); Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao (2017); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2016); Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2015); CA2M Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo, Madrid (2014).

He has participated in prestigious international events such as: the Biennials of Havana (1991- 2019 different editions), Shanghai (2010), São Paulo (1998, 2004, 2010), Venice (2005, 2009, 2018), Johannesburg (1995), Liverpool (2006) and Moscow (2005), the Triennials of Auckland (2007), San Juan (2004), Yokohama (2001) and Echigo- Tsumari (2012); Documenta 11 (2003) and 14 (2017); PhotoEspaña 12 (2012); Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2005, 2008) and Sonsbeek (2001)

In 2005 he received the XXXIX International Contemporary Art Prize - Foundation Prince Pierre de Monaco, and the Katherine S. Marmor Award in Los Angeles. He currently lives and works between Havana and Madrid.