The Salem Art Gallery

From a young age, music was the overwhelming focus of Andrew Cadima's early life, studying performance on the piano, violin, and guitar. He received the Agnes Albert Scholarship to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he would eventually earn a bachelor and master's degrees in composition. 

After a career of conducting and writing music for musicians and ensembles, Cadima had a sudden and mysterious urge to throw himself into painting–a medium he was entirely unfamiliar with. Through oil painting, he discovered an eagerness for this type of self-expression and has continued to share his experiences and techniques for all to see. 

Andrew Cadima’s The Abyss, shows his vast array of technical skill in oil painting, and his favorite expressions in artmaking. In this exhibition, you can see the large influence of portraiture and human expression in his work, as well as his interest in the physical interactions of light and surface. These themes are communicated through careful curation; recontextualizing individual imagery of Cadima’s work in the wider narrative device of ‘The Abyss’.