Exhibition
This solo exhibition explored the distinguished career of the multi-talented artist and horticulturist Margaret Barwick. Curated by David Bridgeman and Associate Curator Natalie Urquhart, the exhibition highlighted Barwick’s many achievements and presented audiences with a diverse array of work, including paintings produced in East Africa, the British Virgin Islands and Cayman over the course of more than three decades.
From her involvement in the formation and early years of the Visual Arts Society (VAS) in the late 1970s, to her signature stamp on one of our best-known embodiments of landscape design, the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, there are vestiges of Margaret Barwick’s legacy across the Cayman Islands and beyond.
Speaking to her numerous contributions to the cultural life of Cayman, curator David Bridgeman said of Margaret Barwick, and of the inspiration for the exhibition’s title: “Washing machines are able to wash, rinse, and wring clothes all in a single operation. In many ways Margaret Barwick is the ultimate metaphorical machine, fulfilling the role of homemaker and mother, but able to switch roles on demand to handle the complexities of life as an artist, horticulturist, diplomatic wife, writer, and teacher.” Screens, Greens and Washing Machines ran from 5 December 2007 to 26 March 2008, and was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
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About the Artist
Margaret Barwick
b. 1931
New Zealand-born Margaret Barwick arrived in the Cayman Islands from New Zealand in 1977 via the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Malawi. She quickly became involved in the establishment of Visual Arts Society, the Islands’ first formal art collective. Subsequently, she headed the first Cayman Islands contingent to Carifesta IV in Barbados in 1981, designed national stamps and Tortola’s J. R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens, played a leading role in the design of the Cayman Islands’ Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, and wrote the authoritative Tropical and Subtropical Trees: A Worldwide Encyclopaedic Guide (2004). Barwick’s work has been exhibited in London, New Zealand, Malawi, Barbados, France, and the Cayman Islands. NGCI exhibitions include a solo retrospective of her work titled Screens, Greens and Washing Machines (2008), as well as the group exhibitions Tropical Visions (2019) and Terra Botanica: Depictions of Nature from the National Collection (2021). In 2022 Barwick was honoured with a CNCF Gold Star for Creativity.
