May 9th – July 18th, 2008

Catalina Obrador (Santanyí, Mallorca, 1977) is displaying, in her first exposition in the Javier Marín Gallery, a series of twenty drawings under the title “Flash me (Dictionary of Symbols)”.
Catalina Obrador’s work possesses an interior quality rich in poetry, in whispers and silences, rich in power and symbolism.  It is a dreamed world of fantasy, where characters associated with mythology and Greek culture appear to create works of impressive presence and emotional impact.  In these works, she makes reference to another one of her fascinations, Hebrew and Muslim culture and religion, the fruit of numerous trips to Egypt and Israel.   
“Flash me” is part of the dictionary of symbols that I have accumulated during this time.  Initially it was a summary, intending to provide the viewers with a glossary, but has become an integral part of the process.  “Flash me” is a chapter that forces all of the possibilities of combination to their limits.

Catalina Obrador pays strict attention to detail but at times, she creates works with rapid and thick strokes to recreate the peculiarities of stories that share tales of exploring mysterious and exotic territories.  She often incorporates short texts into her drawings -almost always created on paper, though sometimes elaborated on walls as large murals using various techniques: Chinese ink, charcoal or pencil.
The phrases that accompany some of the drawings come from phrases heard on the street, the radio, or from conversations with other colleagues.  Many of them inspire in me a pessimistic or defeatist response.  Some of them, such as “El tiempo lo cura todo” (Time cures everything) or “Yo me daría a quien me quisiera” (I would give myself to whoever loved me) are sentences that we use in an attempt to fill silence, an attempt to say something when there is nothing to be said

Scenes of love tattooed onto the chest, nymphs and goddesses, trees in the shape of nude bodies, from whose branches emerge hands that draw, natural elements that combine to create hieroglyphic games.  These are some of the stories that blossom from the soul of Catalina Obrador, a passionate and honest artist who, though her hand, reveals to us an everyday, existential reality. From her most profound and visceral “I”, she recreates and deciphers her most unknown side, touching us with troubling work, alive, pulsating, and salient.

Catalina Obrador studied in the Bellas Artes faculty of the university of Cuenca in 1995 to 1999. After that she left the faculty that same year, she initiates several trips by Europe. From year 2001 she frequently exposes in diverse galleries and public spaces in Mallorca, Cuenca and Madrid. She makes some performances, collaborations in magazines and she participates with the group "La Mancha Revolution" with Juan Ugalde, Iván Perez and Dionisio Cañas. Also she has participated in Colonia Art Fair and Chicago Art Fair presented by the Rafael Perez Hernándo gallery. Her works more recent will be presented/displayed next by Gallery JM in the fair Hot Art Basel.