Marine geology in the work of Marina Gadea

Anyone who approaches to see the work of Marina Gadea must keep in mind that art can be observed in two ways: before it is explained to you and after it is explained to you. If in both cases it moves the viewer, there is something that transcends the ordinary and deserves to invest time in stopping to contemplate.

This is the impression that the work of this Cadiz-born painter provokes, exhibited under the title The Submerged Landscape at the House of Ibero-America in Cádiz.

The palette of blues and the textures used in these paintings remind me, from the first time I saw them, of the children's games we enjoyed as kids during the long Cádiz summers of sandcastles and ephemeral anti-pleamares walls.

That is my first impression, the emotion of a spectator who was raised by the Cádiz sea – as is the case of the author – and has seen in their games the undulations of the seabed, uncovered when the tide recedes, or the different thickness and color of the grains of sand splashing the shore.

Science and art attract a large audience

Then, when you are told that the inspiration for these works of art comes from marine geology, scientific observations, and the bathymetry of submerged territories, the childhood fascination of memory turns into an adult fascination in the present.

Science, for those of us who are laypeople in it, as is my case, possesses for us the enigmatic aura of magic, because in our ignorance we are unable to fully understand what the scientist observes and explains with the ease and rigor provided by knowledge.

For this reason, the works of The Submerged Landscape by Marina Gadea will appeal as much to laypeople like me, who let themselves be enchanted by daydreams, magic, or memories, as to marine geologists who will see in them the most intuitive expression of their scientific work.

A proof of this attraction was the conference the artist gave last week alongside CSIC marine geology researcher Luis Miguel Fernández-Salas. Full house. To the point that additional chairs had to be used to seat so many people.

The seabed as a canvas

Fernández-Salas explained that afternoon that although “creativity is part of both worlds, science and art,” scientists like him are limited by their obligation to adhere to data. In any case, “emotion is the engine that drives both,” making art and science “complementary ways of explaining the world.”

The researcher spoke at that meeting about the dynamics of Cádiz's seabed and how art can reflect that movement with its own means of expression. For him, working at the Oceanographic Institute, “the echo sounder is like our brush” and “the seabed would be like our canvas.”

It is from these scientific data that Gadea draws inspiration to create her artworks.

“This exhibition arises from my fascination with Cádiz and the special relationship Cádiz has with the ocean, that oceanic identity that those of us who live here feel; it is about bringing to light the submerged landscape we have in front of us and making the invisible visible,” affirms the painter.

https://youtu.be/-6JTUwux0UM

The invisible landscape

I ask if a diver would see under the sea what we see in her paintings, and the explanation serves as an indication of the originality of her proposal: “The submerged landscape we bring to light is at a great depth, more than twelve hundred meters, and these are those mountains, those reliefs, and submarine volcanoes that a diver could not see.”

The exhibition is curated by Cecilia González Godino. She and the Cádiz-born artist met at the Madrid fair ARCO in 2024: “We realized that we shared interests, such as fascination with the landscape, especially the landscape that is not visible, the one that goes beyond the superficial,” comments Godino.

“What interested me a lot about her work was the way her painting questions the modern representation of the landscape.”

Exhibition The Submerged Landscape. Marina Gadea.
House of Ibero-America. Zitman Room. Until April 26
Calle Concepción Arenal, s/n.
Hours: Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 20:00.
Saturdays from 10:00 to 13:00. Closed on holidays.