Biography

Gabriela Grech (Madrid, 1961) got started in photography in 1993 through her participation in different seminars and art workshops. Since the beginning of her career, she has developed her photographic work both in the professional field, working mainly in publishing and advertising, and in the artistic sphere, producing projects consisting of closed and independent series.   With the exception of Caribbean Grey, a harsh social and political criticism of Western society’s use (and abuse) of tourism, all her artistic works are clearly self-referencial. For this reason, her biography (or, in other words, how she is situated in the world and her relationship with it) has deeply determined her creative impulse. In two of her series, Water and Sea skin, self-portrait and water are the two central themes around which an existential discourse revolves, a discourse that is influenced by her nostalgia for the sea and also, metaphorically speaking, nostalgia for the amniotic fluid. Continuing in this same autobiographical vein, Dialogs approaches the intense world of the artist’s personal relationships, and Larache/Al-Araich, a project still in progress, recovers the memory of this Atlantic city (once a Spanish protectorate in Morocco) where she spent her childhood and adolescence.

Solo exhibitions

2005
Water. La Escalera Gallery. Cuenca.
Dialogues. Maior Gallery. Palma de Mallorca.
Larache-Al Araich (in collaboration with S. Olmo). Blanca Soto Gallery. PhE05. Madrid.

2004
Dialogues. Spectrum-Sotos Gallery. Zaragoza.

2003
Water. UNICEF Art Centre. Sevilla.

2002
Water. Maior Gallery. Pollença. Mallorca.

2001
Sea Skin. H2O Gallery. Barcelona
Water. Alava´s Historical Territory Archive. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Catalogue.

1998
Blue Notebook. Doblespacio Gallery. Madrid.

Group exhibitions

2010
Women&Women (January-june 2010). Embassy of Spain in Washington DC, during the Spanish Presidency of European Union. Project curated by Blanca Berlín (Blanca Berlín Galeria).

2009
15 Years of Spanish Contemporary Photography (Alcobendas´ Collection). Different venues (Alcobendas, Madrid); Andalusian Photography Centre (Almería).

2008
The water´s streams. EMASESA Cultural. Catalogue.
Emotionals scenes. Blanca Berlín Gallery. PhE08. Madrid.
Art=Life=Art. Vostell Malpartida Museum. Cáceres.
Spaces. Full Art Gallery. Sevilla.

2007
Cartographical Variations. Montehermoso Community Centre. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Catalo-gue.

2004
Intrasenses. Another Look at the Collection. Artium. Vitoria-Gasteiz. Catalogue.

2003
The useless journey (Caribbean Grey project). Lanzarote´s 2nd Bienal (Canarias). Catalogue.
ARCO´03. Maior Gallery. Madrid.

2002
In Centimeters. XX Century Art in small size. Fernando Pradilla Gallery. Madrid.

2001
Genres and tendencies at the beginning of the XXI Century. Alcobendas´ Town Council Community Centre. Catalogue.

2000
Ungraspables Edges. Revillagigedo Palace (Gijón); Damián Bayón Centre (Santa Fe, Granada); Amárica Hall (Vitoria-Gasteiz). Catalogue.

1999
Heartbeats. Cuzco IV Building. PhE99. Madrid.

1995
The Body and the Memory. Canal de Isabel II. Madrid. Catalogue.

Publications

Water. Número Magazine, nº 16 (December´98). Colombia.
Caribbean Grey. Atlántica Magazine, nº 24 (Autumn´99). CAAM. Gran Canaria.

Collections

Regional Government of Madrid
Cajastur
Alava Fine Arts Museum
Alcobendas´ Town Council
La Caixa Foundation

Awards

Regional Government of Madrid’s Award for Artistic Creation 2008. Larache/Al-Araich project.