Exhibition
This year’s biennial acknowledges the unprecedented upheavals and accelerated pace of change that have characterised the Caymanian experience in recent years, mirroring in microcosm the broader state of Caribbean and world affairs in the first decades of the twenty-first century. Challenging the prevailing characterisation of island life as somewhat insulated from the effects of global geo-politics, Caymanian society has now reached a watershed moment—standing on the threshold of dramatic transformations that have already begun to impact the natural ecology, built environment, political outlook, and wider identity as a nation.
At the same time, while conversations progress at the national level, there is a renewed awareness of individuals as worlds unto themselves: from debates on personal rights, to highly curated social media, to bias-confirming algorithms, all of which have contributed to higher rates of loneliness and isolation than we have seen in generations. While these themes resonate universally—balancing the voices and rights of the collective with those of the individual—artists with significant ties to the Cayman Islands represent a kind of archipelago.
This 4th edition of the CIB, Archipelago, foregrounds the unique intersection of individual and collective roles in shaping the current moment, just as an archipelago can be viewed as both a single conglomerate entity and as hundreds of distinct islands with individual shores. Recognising the pressing need for open and constructive dialogue, this exhibition is a nexus for the open exchange of critical ideas, personal reflection, and imaginative possibilities.
Featuring 76 artworks by 60 artists/collectives, CIB4 is the most ambitious biennial to date, and the first to invite curators from outside the region. Across six venues, coded with each site’s colour on the biennial logo, and across three subthemes, with artworks’ labels marked by the iconic patterns below, we invite the viewer to consider how the artists’ visions on key social issues imperatively resonate at personal, national, and international registers—and on the relationship between those spheres.
Joseph L. Underwood & Davin Ebanks, CIB4 Co-Curators
Venues
*Hover over the colours for venue names. Click for venue details.
Hours
National Gallery of the Cayman Islands
| Monday – Saturday | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm | (free admission) |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | CLOSED |
Cayman Islands National Museum
| Monday – Friday | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Saturday | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
Last admission: 45 mins. before closing
(Free admission Saturdays to residents of the Cayman Islands)
Mission House
| Friday – Saturday | 10:00 am – 2:00 pm | (house) |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday – Thursday | CLOSED | (house) |
| 24/7 Access | (outdoor exhibition) |
(20% Biennial discount when booking tours of the house)
Gram Bella’s
| 24/7 Access | (free admission) |
|---|
Cayman Brac Heritage House
| Monday – Wednesday | 8:30 am – 12:00 pm | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 8:30 am – 1:00 pm | |
| Friday | 8:30 am – 12:00 pm | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm |
| Saturday – Sunday | CLOSED |
Little Cayman Museum
| October – November | ||
| Thursday – Sunday | 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm | (by appointment at +1 345 948 1033) |
|---|---|---|
| November 1st – February 18th | ||
| Thursday – Sunday | 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm | |
Team
Davin K. Ebanks, Co-Curator
Davin K. Ebanks is a Caymanian sculptor who primarily utilizes glass to explore his personal and cultural history and examine the relationship between identity and environment. He is a recipient of the Silver Heritage Star from the Cayman National Cultural Foundation for his contributions to creativity in the Arts. His glass sculptures are in the collection of His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, The Kerry & C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, and NGCI. His sculpture Adjacent permanently marks the entrance to the NGCI, and in 2019 Ebanks’ work was published in A-Z of Caribbean Art. Key exhibitions include SOFA Chicago and CONTEXT Art Miami during Art Basel, the solo show Nowhere is Blue at The Sculpture Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, and NGCI exhibitions Blue Meridian (solo show, 2010-2011), Luminescent Forms (2014), and Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019).
Joseph L. Underwood, Co-Curator
Joseph L. Underwood is a scholar and curator whose research focuses on artists from the African continent and the Diaspora. As an art historian of the modern and contemporary periods, his projects focus on the mid-to-late twentieth century and encompass themes from the Postwar era: including post-colonialism, (trans)nationalism, globalization, and biennialism. His research as a professor at Kent State University is especially focused on Senegal, charting how artists have created transnational networks of influence since the mid-20th century. Previous curatorial projects include TEXTURES: the history and art of Black hair and The View From Here: Contemporary Perspectives from Senegal, beyond contributing to projects at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and the Dakar Biennale.
Jury
Kerri-Anne joined co-curators Davin K. Ebanks and Joseph L. Underwood to form the 4th Cayman Islands Biennial jury, who were tasked with carefully evaluating and selecting the artworks featured in the exhibition.
Kerri-Anne Chisholm, Juror
Kerri-Anne Chisholm is a Caribbean cultural practitioner, social justice activist, and artist. Raised in the Cayman Islands, her deep ancestral ties to Jamaica, Cuba and Scotland inform her views on multicultural Caribbean identity, cultural production, and postcoloniality. Her creative practices explore human connection as a means of mediating social and personal identities using photography, curating, and sculpture. Chisholm is currently finalising her PhD research at the University of Reading, examining the Caribbean yard space as counterpart to traditional exhibition spaces, and how these sites intuitively foster identity negotiation, creativity, community dialogue and cohesion, and provide platforms for infra-political resistance.
This project is sponsored by Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited, with support from the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage.
Featured Artists
James Adams, Kimberly Ann Agbuya, Diane Leitch Anglim, Shane “Dready” Aquârt, Jo Austin, Alok Bhardwaj, John Bird, Luelan (a.k.a. Lutz) Bodden, Debbie Chase van der Bol, Dubadah Boldeau, Cameron Bridgeman, Kristy Capewell, Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, Randy Chollette, Anne-Marie Diaz, David Bridgeman & Leonard Dilbert, Bryony Dixon, Rhian Campbell & Meegan Ebanks & Sean Ebanks, Conroy Ebanks, Kerwin Ebanks, Kaitlyn Elphinstone, Kathryn Elphinstone, Jasmina Cibic (feat. Rita Estevanovich), Samuel Etoh, Daniel Grimes, Zuri Hannah, Joanna Humphries, Martina Jackson, John Reno Jackson, Andre Jennings, Esther Johnson, Pam Kelly-Laurenson, Cera-Tan Kennaird, Jason Kennedy, Deborah Kern, Nancy Barnard (née Kirkaldy), STOAK’D (Marc Laurenson) & FOOTS (Ronald Kynes), Stefan Langlois, Faye Lippitt, Iain A. MacRae, Magpie, Linda McCann, Sarah McDougall, Alyssa McLaughlin, Michael A. Mothen, Heather Holt & Morgan Olley, Claire Pettinati, José Plácido, Yonier Powery, Brandon Saunders, Janine Scriven, Amrita Sinha, Elizabeth Paige Smith, Kay Smith, Sisters’ Art (Lana Gilyun & Larisa Sved), Simon Tatum, Cecilia Urdaneta, Alyssa Whorms, and Zhenya Xia.