Exhibition
The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands’ (NGCI) exhibition Our Story of Art featured 50 years of Cayman Islands art history through the work of fifty artists.
The exhibition traced the journey local artists had taken over the past five decades. Starting in the late 1960s, which was a period dominated by picturesque realism, the exhibition followed the development of the fledging art scene through the 1980s, moving on to the emergence of a home-grown Caymanian aesthetic in the mid-1990s, before culminating in the more socially conscious visual narrative of the present day.
The diverse selection of works provided an insight into the history and creative vision of a people, realised through a wide variety of mediums and disciplines: painting, collage and mixed media assemblage, ceramics, sculpture, thatch craft, textiles, and photography. Works were loaned from private and public collections.
“Our Story of Art is only a brief survey of our story thus far”, said curator and NGCI director Natalie Urquhart. “It is intended as a starting point in the creation of a framework for the interpretation of our art, a chance to reflect and to simultaneously engage in further scholarship and discourse about Caymanian visual expression.” The supporting education programmes were designed to start this process through a series of panel discussions, lectures, and education programmes for all ages.
Thank you to our sponsor:
Featured Artists
Jan Barwick, Margaret Barwick, David Bridgeman, John Broad, Gladwyn K. “Miss Lassie” Bush, Nasaria Suckoo Chollette, Randy Chollette, Chris Christian, Aston Ebanks, Rose May Ebanks, Al Ebanks, Sue Greff, Bendel Hydes, Charles Long, Chris Mann, Nickola McCoy-Snell, Vivian Pearce, Miguel Powery, along with lesser known artists that were instrumental in establishing the early visual arts scene, Gordon Solomon, CE Whitney, and Sue Widmer.