Seascapes

The story of our maritime heritage lies at the very heart of our national identity. From the first permanent settlers harvesting turtles and salvaging shipwrecks, to our merchant mariners who travelled around the globe, and more recently our watersports industry which attracted tourism from the 1950s onwards, Caymanians have looked to the sea to provide a livelihood, resulting in a distinctly nautical culture that remains prominent to this day.

This exhibition was based on our intrinsic relationship with the ocean as a central theme in the history of Caymanian art and evidenced this through this sample of artworks from NGCI’s National Collection. The featured artists were among the Islands’ most prolific, and each approached the maritime theme in different ways. Some sought to capture light and water in their purest aesthetic forms by painting “en plein air” directly on the seashore, while others treated their subject in a more stylised way — often the result of careful study and development in a studio environment.

Following several successful projects over the past three years, this exhibition was the fifth collaboration between the Little Cayman Museum and the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, which brought inspiring visual art and stimulating exhibitions to audiences in the sister Islands.

This project was developed by the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands and its presentation in Little Cayman was part of an ongoing collaboration between the National Gallery, the Little Cayman Museum, and the Cayman Islands Legacy Fund (CILF).