Mikayla
Primarily an abstract painter, Jackson’s work explores the painterly process by juxtaposing the traditional medium of oil and acrylic paint with more recent forms of digital technology. Mikayla is the first painting in which the artist combines oil and acrylic paint together, creating a portrait of the artist’s friend. He chooses not to capture an accurate depiction but rather to create “a more human image”, with the sitter’s individual personality instead conveyed through the painting’s narrative of abstract forms.
About the Artist
John Reno Jackson
b. 1995
John Reno Jackson is a Caymanian-American painter. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art (UCL) and received his MA in painting from the Royal College of Art, London (2025), where he was the recipient of the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship. His work explores the possibilities of painterly expression through varying abstract investigations of his chosen medium. He has exhibited at Tern Gallery in the Bahamas and held a solo exhibition, A Heron Amidst the Storm, at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands in 2022. His work is in the permanent collection of NGCI, where it has also featured in various exhibitions such as Island of Women: Life at Home During Our Maritime Years (2020), Reimagined Futures – 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial (2021) and The People’s Collection – A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022).
