Garcia de Marina
Bio
García de Marina was born in Gijón (Spain) in 1975. He emerged thru a deep transformation in 2010. A dormant passion for photography crossed the barriers of intimacy and he started a sparkling career characterized by photographic reflection, in contrast with the author’s restless nature. In less than a year García de Marina gave in to a devotion for photography, unveiled his unusual photographic gaze in social networking sites, and presented his work in various exhibitions.
Since 2011 he uses objects as a means of expression. He is interested in their symbolism, that random connection of elements that a priori lack of relation, condensation or essentiality, in order to translate them into an emotional burden. His work revolves around intuition and ideas, surrealism, and the world of the subconscious and dreams.
His work is deeply irreverent with reality, seeking to transform and stamp objects with new identities, challenging the obvious, and paying attention to the greatness of everyday life. The bareness of his photography endows objects with a leading role, while they are stripped of their essence to be reinvented. He seeks to give emotion to a piece of cutlery, to a match, or to tell a story, his own story, with an eggshell.
The artist never gives his works a title, leaving them in a free interpretation, thus provoking a dialogue between his work and the spectator, and let the idea or story end in the mind of the observer; neither does he perform any photographic manipulation on the images. Instead, he transforms the objects creating scenes and looks for the best perspective to photograph them.
His unusual creativity has not gone unnoticed by the media, both Spanish and foreign. Individual, group exhibitions and art fairs have allowed him to show his works in different countries around the world. From the minimalism and creativity of his gaze, García de Marina pursues another reality.
In 2015 he was one of the chosen ones by the Spanish Embassy to participate in the «Photo Week Washington D.C.”. In 2017, the Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla León in Spain (MUSAC) selected three of his pieces for the “Constellations exhibition, experimental poetry in Spain (1963-2016)”, where for the first time, the presence of visual and experimental poetry in Spain from the 1960s to the present is addressed.
In 2018 presented his exhibition “Diálo2” in the Barjola´s Museum in Spain together with one the most important visual poets of the 20th century in Spain, Joan Brossa.
In 2019 he showed the project “The Unfinished Word” in the Cervantes Institute in Belgrade. This work explores the relationship between visual and written language. The exhibition was presented that year at “Laboral City of the Culture” in Spain and later in different Cervantes Institute Centers around the world. Also in 2020, he showed the work “Innocents” in Spain. A Project that reflects on human rights. This project was later shown in Myanmar, Hungary and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2021 the postal service of «Correos and Telégrafos» of Spain puts into circulation 162.000 stamps with a work by the author. It would be the first stamp in the world dedicated to «Postal Art». Also in 2021, the largest private Museum of Contemporary Art in Russia, the Erarta Museum (St. Petersburg) showed a retrospective exhibition of his works.
In 2024, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba, dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him. It would be the first time that this Museum dedicated an exhibition of this type to a Spanish photographer. Also in 2024, the Erarta Museum in Saint Petersburg dedicated a second exhibition to him. He would be the first author in the world with two exhibitions in this Museum.
During last years the artist has participated in some Festivals of photography, in Spain and abroad as Photo Week D.C. in Washington (2015), Photo Romania Festival (2015), Photometria Festival in Greece (2016), Festival of the light in Argentina (2016), Bucharest Foto Week (2016), Addis Foto Fest in Ethiopia (2016), Uppsala Foto Festival in Sweden (2017), Yangon Photo Festival in Myanmar (2018), Belgrade Photo Month (2019), Budapest Photo Fest (2020), Xposure International Photography Festival (2018 and 2022) and International Image Festival in Mexico (2024).
Statement
For García de Marina, freedom begins in the way he selects his elements: simple, everyday objects that, when decontextualized, acquire new meanings. From a pin to a key or an egg, each of these objects becomes the protagonist of a visual narrative that challenges the boundaries of logic and convention. In this sense, the photographer gives these objects the freedom to be what they are not, or rather, what they could become in the imagination.
This approach reflects a deep creative freedom, where the rules of representation are broken to make way for a more free and subjective interpretation. In his hands, a ladder is not just a tool for work, but a bridge to the unknown, an instrument that invites us to ascend toward other meanings. In this process of transformation, García de Marina reminds us that art is, in itself, an act of liberation: from preconceived ideas, from rigid norms, from any kind of restriction that might stifle creativity.
Moreover, freedom is not only present in the content of his works, but also in the way they interact with the viewer. His images free us from the need to seek logical or rational explanations, allowing us to interpret them from our own emotions and intuitions. He invites us to think outside of conventional frameworks and explore new possibilities.
In short, García de Marina's work is a celebration of freedom: the freedom to create, to reinterpret, to imagine. Through his photographs, he invites us to liberate ourselves from the ordinary, to see beyond the obvious, and to explore the world from a perspective that privileges creativity and open-mindedness. Each image is a window to the unknown, an invitation to soar in the vast space of the imagination, without barriers.
Additional information
García de Marina is a Spanish photographer who has established himself as one of the most representative figures in conceptual photography in his country. His work, marked by simplicity and subtlety, invites us to rethink the world through a poetic gaze on everyday objects. In his compositions, the word “freedom” takes on essential significance, both in his creative process and in the message he conveys to viewers.
For García de Marina, freedom begins in the way he chooses his elements: simple, common objects that, when decontextualized, acquire new interpretations. From a pin to a key or an egg, each of these elements becomes the protagonist of a visual narrative that challenges the limits of logic and convention. In this sense, the photographer gives objects the freedom to be what they are not, or rather, what they can become in the imagination.
This approach reflects a deep creative freedom, where the rules of representation are broken to allow for a more open and subjective interpretation. In his hands, a ladder is not just a tool, but a bridge to the unknown, an invitation to ascend to other meanings. In this process of transformation, García de Marina reminds us that art is, in itself, an act of liberation: from preconceived ideas, from rigid norms, from any restrictions that might constrain creativity.
Moreover, freedom is not only present in the content of his works but also in how they interact with the viewer. His images free us from the need to seek logical or rational explanations, allowing us to interpret from our own emotions and intuitions. He invites us to think outside conventional frameworks and explore new possibilities.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
