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 21st Century Cayman Exhibition
February 26th 2010 to May 26th 2010
Curator: David Bridgeman, Lynda Parsons and Natalie Urquhart
The National Gallery has teamed up with the Cayman Islands Traditional Arts Council to invite our contemporary artists and traditional artisans to collaborate in 21st Century Cayman. Working in pairs, they will share skills and explore contemporary and recycled materials to re-imagine some of the time-honoured techniques that make our heritage unique. Exhibited artworks will include Catboat sails designed with vibrant colours, hand carved and painted gigs and Waurie boards, thatch baskets plaited and embellished with bold recycled materials, and larger installation pieces using traditional weaving patterns, and many others. Ultimately, the National Gallery hopes to inspire the continuation of our traditional heritage in a way that is accessible and relevant to our youth, providing opportunities to further the skills and teachings of the traditional artists and to help support a sustainable craft industry for future generations. Accompanying the exhibition will be a curator's lecture on the history of Caymanian heritage craft and contemporary art, our monthly artist-led Lunchtime Lecture Series (x3), a ‘Late Night at the Gallery' Waurie tournament, weaving and gig making workshops, and a series of panel discussion and debates. "The National Gallery hopes to promote the continuation of our traditional heritage in a way that is sustainable and accessible to our younger generation". Natalie Coleman
Director - National Gallery of the Cayman Islands
 Up and Out Exhibition: An Exhibition of Contemporary Street Art
November 5 - February 17 2010
Curator: Jessica Wallace
The National Gallery is eager to present for the first time an eclectic variety of Contemporary Street Art by emerging local artists. Although Street Art is fast becoming recognized as the defining art movement of the 21st Century, it was originally born out of Graffiti writing which started in the Ghettos of New York and
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Street art is a powerful platform for reaching the public, and many of the pieces in UP and OUT address topics concerning social justice and activism. The universal theme in most, if not all Street Art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space, allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised, to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow. These individual art pieces and murals offer a means of communication and self-expression for members of socially marginalized communities, providing an effective tool for establishing dialog and addressing positive change.
Paradise (re)Visited - 19th Century Jamaican Landscape Painters
August 6 2009 - October 28 2009
Curator: Natalie Coleman
This extensive collection of 19th century prints, from the collection of Hugh and Pam Hart, represents some of the best known early pictorial representations of the Jamaican landscape and the visiting artists' attempts at capturing the landscape and society at that time. With subjects ranging from idealised landscapes, to plantation houses, ships, and daily life, viewers will glean an insight into the early colonial history of our neighbours.
This vision of ‘Paradise' was reproduced throughout Europe, prefiguring the later trend for romantic landscapes in the 19th century, and provided the earliest ‘popular' understanding of the Caribbean region in the West. 40 prints by the renowned artist Kidd will be on display, with the inclusion of supporting work by Belanger, Robertson, Hakewill and Duperly.
The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to view an unparalleled private collection and to explore the early art history of our neighbours. Themes of identity, and the ‘how' and ‘why' the
Lectures:
Conversations with the Curator (lunchtime lecture series) - 23rd September
Travelling Power Point lecture to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman school - 16th & 17th September
A Day in the Life II - three artists in residence
June 1 2009 - June 12 2009
Exhibition Closed July 30
After a successful inaugural run in 2008, the Gallery has invited three new artists to participate in an in-house residency programme and exhibition.
For ‘A Day in the Life II' artists Nickola McCoy (sculpture & installation), David Bridgeman (multi media) and Kaitlyn Elphinstone (photography and conceptual art) will recreate their studios inside the Gallery and work for two weeks in the public's eye before transforming the surroundings into three self-curated solo exhibitions.
If you have ever wondered how artists create the way they do, or want to drop in and meet one of these well-known artists - now is your chance! June 1 - 12th, Artists-in-Residence; visit the artists as they work in the studio from 9-5pm daily.
Enduring Nature: Works by Robert Scott Michiel
March 12th 2009- May 27th 2009
Curator: David Bridgeman and Linda Parsons
This March the National Gallery will collaborate with Canadian photographer Robert Scott. Michiel with present a fine art photography exhibition that captures the beauty of the Cayman Brac landscape.
Hailing from Beaumont, Alberta, Michiel had been working on Cayman Brac for 18 months prior to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Paloma.
During this period he photographed the rugged natural beauty the surrounding landscape, focusing on roots, rocks and iron shore, and capturing the Brac in a way that few have appreciated. Exhibition curator Natalie Coleman says of Mr. Michiel's work, "There is a timeless quality in this collection.
The landscape captured is at once ancient and enduring. In the wake of Paloma these powerful images remind us that even in the darkest moments, when the landscape is stripped bare, beauty remains.
All of the exhibited images will be for sale with part proceeds going to the Cayman Brac recovery fund.
 Icons of Cayman: Works by Seth Chwast
October 25 2008-February 14th 2009 Curator: Natalie Coleman Sponsored by RBS Coutts Seth was diagnosed with autism as a very young child, and lived for years in a world of roller coasters, haunted houses, and classical music. A dramatic change came in 2003, when at age 20 he took an oil painting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Seth, who rarely speaks, began describing his world in paint. In the years since Seth has exhibited internationally and has several works residing in public and private collections. He has recently been documented on the Today show and is the 2008 artist for the US National Autism day.
Having just completed two solo exhibitions in the Galapagos Islands he is currently working on a painting for a benefit at The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame; a Loch Ness Monster mural for Busch Gardens and has been invited to contribute to the Charles Darwin 200th anniversary celebrations this year in Luxembourg.
Seth recently visited the Cayman Islands and has created a new body of work for this exhibition based on his experiences Grand Cayman and the Visit the site on http://www.sethchwast.com
Art Space - A New Space for Art in Cayman
July 3rd - August 11th 2008 Curator: Nancy Kirkaldy-Barnard Sponsored by the National Gallery
An exhibition of drawings, photographs and original models by Caymanian architect Danny Owens and a selection of the National Art Collection alongside information, art and images from the Gallery's vibrant and expanding, education & outreach departments.
A Day in the Life (Residency & Exhibition)
April 15 – June 28 2008 Curated by the Artists
Sponsored by Butterfield Bank
Works by Randy Chollette, Aston Ebanks and Cecilia Urdanate For the first ever National Gallery residency programme, three artists were invited to join the Gallery for ten days to create their artwork in the public eye. Randy Chollette, Aston Ebanks and Cecilia Urdaneta recreated their studios inside the Gallery’s three exhibition spaces, moving beyond the confines of their regular working environment. The resulting works - in ceramic, film and paint – have subsequently been transformed into three self-curated solo exhibitions in which the artists have used the available space in diverse and creative ways.
 Screens, Greens and Washing Machines: The Life and Work of Margaret Barwick 5 December 2007 – 26 March 2008 Curator: David Bridgeman Sponsored by: Rawlinson & Hunter Propelled, in the most classic sense, by a creative passion, Margaret Barwick - artist, horticulturalist, diplomatic wife and teacher –has had a life long interest and passion for tropical plant life that is rivalled only by her love of painting. While living in such diverse communities as New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Malawi, the British Virgin Islands, USA, France and the Cayman Islands Margaret balanced her responsibilities as the wife of a senior civil servant with an endless stream of creative projects - whether designing a country’s first set of definitive stamps; creating a primary school in the outer Gilbert and Ellis islands; founding Cayman’s Botanical Gardens, instigating Cayman’s first comprehensive arts society, or traveling around the globe to research her definitive encyclopaedia of tropical plants. This exhibition explores these various vehicles of artistic expression and in doing so celebrates the life of a unique individual whose endless creative energy has provided inspiration for seasoned adventurers, aspiring artists and avid gardeners alike.
 Faces and Figures: Joanne Sibley29 September - 30 November 2007 Curator: David Bridgeman Sponsored by: This exhibition features a selection of portrait paintings by one of Cayman’s renowned and respected artists, Joanne Sibley. Joanne Sibley was born in Canada but has resided in the Cayman Islands for many years. Over this time she has become one of the Islands’ most sought after artists, and has represented Cayman at regional and international exhibitions. Known primarily for her beautiful watercolour renderings of Cayman land and seascapes, this show focuses on her portraits, comprising over thirty portraits in a range of media. The works span some forty years of her career and feature early paintings and drawings including some intimate portraits of her father, and her children, together with many other recognisable faces.
 From Within V – A Work In Progress
30 August – 14 September 2007 Curator: Mona L. Tatum-Watler Sponsored by: Art Zone - State Street Trust Company Cayman Ltd.; Walkers Children and the Arts Programme – Walkers; Art Outreach Bonaventure House - Rotary Club of Grand Cayman; Art Outreach Frances Bodden - Caledonian Bank; Inside Art Northward, Art Sisters, Inside Art Fairbanks and Eagle House I & II - Dart Foundation. Exhibition and sale of the works of all nine of the National Gallery’s Outreach Programmes 2006. Inside Art Northward, Inside Art Fairbanks, Inside Art Eagle House, Bonaventure Art Outreach, Frances Bodden Art Outreach, Caribbean Haven Art Outreach, Art Magnet, Art Zone and Art Sisters. Mrs. Mariko Jack is the official Patron of the National Gallery Outreach Programmes.  Cayman: An Ever-Changing Landscape 31 May – 24 August 2007 Curator: Natalie Coleman Sponsored by: Butterfield Bank Picking up the theme of cultural identity posed by the National Gallery’s Arreckly exhibition, Cayman: An Ever-changing Landscape will explore the changing artistic representations of Cayman over the decades. Through key works from the National Collections of the National Gallery, National Museum and the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, this exhibition looks at such key issues as the rapid cultural and physical development of the Islands and the survival of heritage in an increasingly globalised society. Held in conjunction with the Cayman Islands National Museum and the Cayman National Cultural Foundation  Arreckly: Towards A Cultural Identity1 February – 26 March 2007 Curator: David Bridgeman Sponsored by: Rawlinson and Hunter A group of artists resident in the Cayman Islands were invited to work together to produce an exhibition that defined itself by noticing and highlighting differences with each other’s groups and cultures. Some critics of cultural identity argue that its preservation, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society. But how do artists living and working in Cayman feel right now, arreckly, about Cayman’s search to find its own cultural identity? The exhibition was the beginning of a visual dialogue that will push artists further, not only in terms of their own self-discovery but by using their art arreckly to help highlight the need for an improved understanding of Cayman’s shifting perception of its own cultural identity. The exhibition features works by Aston Ebanks, Wray Banker, Kushana Gentles, John Broad, Nasaria Suckoo, Avril Ward, Randy Cholette, David Bridgeman, April Bending, Renate Seffer, Chris Mann and Anne Goulden. |
