Caymanian Modernism
By the 1990s, a new generation of Caymanian artists were coming to the forefront, many returning home from the United States with degrees in graphic design, fine art, and the dramatic arts. At the same time, an increasing number of self-taught artists were gaining popularity such as Al Ebanks, Miguel Powery and Horacio Esteban. There was a mobilisation toward a new, homegrown discourse that challenged the persistent dominance of Realism and landscape painting and which resulted in the creation of the Native Sons artists collective in 1996. While stylistically individual—with work influenced by a wide range of Modernist movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, Pointillism, and Abstract Expressionism—the Native Sons were united by the principle of promoting a uniquely Caymanian aesthetic inspired by their heritage and sociocultural experiences, which had been relatively removed from artistic content until this period.
