Born in Mexico and raised in the United States from the age of six, Garcia grew up in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Upon graduating from Bravo Medical Magnet HS in Boyle Heights, Garcia went on to earn a dual bachelor's degree in Political Science and Chicano Studies from UCLA in 2007.
[1] His master's thesis, based on extensive field research, mapped the growth of alternative and artist-run spaces along the U.S.-Mexico border during the height of the violent cartel wars.
[3] Since 2012, Garcia has been the Founding Director and Chief Curator of The Mistake Room—LA's only independent, non-profit cultural institution solely devoted to an international program of art and ideas.
[5][6] Garcia's notable exhibitions and projects include Joel Kyack's freeway puppet theater Superclogger (2010);[7] Marcos Ramirez' ERRE's retrospective exhibition at the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (co-curated with Kevin Power);[8] a re-staging of Mark di Suvero's Artists Tower of Protest for the Getty Foundation's Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival (2012);[9] the U.S. museum premiere of Egyptian artist Wael Shawky's Cabaret Crusades at the Hammer Museum (2013);[10] and Eduardo Sarabia's mid-career survey at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas in Guadalajara, Mexico (2014), amongst others.