Miguel Marina at The Goma

One ought to understand the painting of Miguel Marina (Madrid, 1989) as an ongoing process of experimentation, as a forking path where transience becomes conclusive production.

While in recent years he has given us monochrome works shrouded in glazes, where light and shadow vie for the space of the canvas, in this third solo show, the focus is lent entirely to the brushwork. In the set of works on view in this latest exhibition we can appreciate short brushstrokes that speak to us of dynamism and compositional imbalance. The way of filling the surface of the canvas is no longer uniform, presenting discontinuous leaps that sometimes leave the primed canvas on view. In this state, where boundaries are not delimited by such fluid painting, the form takes on centre stage.

A Sticky Situation is a natural about-turn in the normal development of a painterly practice, like something already known that returns, yet at once fresh and renewed. This is captured in the titles of the works, echoing songs, music or buzzing sounds; “Poetry is no more than the word that likes to return” said José María Valverde, or, as the artist quotes from a poem by Anne Carson: “Spring is always like what it used to be”, a course where things come naturally.