He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte de la Habana in 1995 and studied at the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, and at the University of South Florida.

Barroso is part of a generation of artists who aesthetically renovated Cuban printmaking in the early 90's, transforming the traditional woodcut technique into three-dimensional objects. "Engraving is considered a conservative genre but since I started to build I decided to do something different with the technique, use its language, develop it in the way that interested me, finding new variations... I wanted to revolutionize its basis by, for example, making three-dimensional prints."

The feelinig of identity in his work has been strengthened since 2008 by the exhibition 'Se acabó la guerra fría a gozar con la civilización' in Promo-Arte, Tokyo. Although he had already sketched samples of unipersonal relations with respect to globalization; in the broadest sense of the word, his works conceptualize human trafficking to the borders in a developed world. The crafted images, offer at the same time, a contradiction between tropical technology (humorous reference to the Caribbean fruit) and the coldness and absurdity of global manufacturing.

Barroso explores social involvement and endowes to his work a human dimension that ironically ends uo divided between the fractured spaces of his labyrinths, bridges and walls. Borders in his Works  usually remind us of the differences between the real and the imaginary cities (El Dorado) we create. 

In 2011 will exhibits for the first time in France with 'Murs réels, murs virtuels’.  Then, in 2012 he returns tu Europe to the gallery Michel Soskine Inc. in Madrid.
In the years between 2013 and 2015, in addition to several solo exhbitions in the US and Japan, he participates in several colectives with other artists who work on concepts about the transiency of the human, with their borders and delimitations. 

His work is exhibited in Art Brussels, ArcoMadrid, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Art Miami and Art Lima.

In 2017 he is one of the main members of the Pavilion of Cuba, at the 57th Venice Biennial curated by José Manuel Noceda Fernández.

Abel Barroso's work is frequently exhibited in the United States, Latin America, Japan and Europe and is featured in prestigious collections that include the MoMA (USA), Whitney Museum (USA), Bacardi Foundation (USA), National Museum of Fine Arts (Cuba), Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center (Cuba), Minneapolis Art Museum editions 55 and 57 of the Venice Biennale, Banff Center for the Arts (Canada) and Federal Reserve Collection (USA), among others.