Caribbean Art: Cayman’s National Gallery Begins Ceramic Art Exhibit

Above: the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands has launched a new exhibition focusing on ceramic art from around the world from the 15th century to the modern day.

The exhibition will include works from the United Kingdom’s Belvedere Collection, along with artists from Europe, South Africa and the Cayman Islands.

Local artists contributing their wares include Joseph Betty, Alan Darvil, Al Ebanks, Davin Ebanks, Virginia Foster, Chris Mann, Lorna Reid, Cecilia Urdaneta and Avril Ward.

The exhibition is a partnership between the National Gallery, the London Amsterdam Trust Company Limited and Butterfield.

“Our relationship with the National Gallery goes back many years and we are pleased to be partnering with them again for another engaging exhibition,” said Rory Mann from Butterfield marketing and communications. “Ceramic Art — From the Fifteenth Century to the Contemporary, promises to be an exhibition like no other seen before in Cayman and NGCI has worked exceptionally hard on putting together a robust educational element for our local schools. We are proud to support them in their continued effort to educate, enrich and develop the visual arts within the community in which we live and work.”

The exhibition includes 47 pieces from the Belvedere Collection.

The exhibition’s schedule will include several special events, including special lectures, a free schools programme and a late-night viewing, among others.

It is being curated by Natalie Urquhart and Eme Paschalides.

“The art of ceramics (from the Greek, keramikos, meaning pottery) is unassertive and yet can evoke the deepest responses,” Paschalides said. “Indeed, ceramic products are fine art objects of unsurpassed beauty and technical virtuosity and, in art history, are often the only remaining artistic evidence of a vanished culture.”