The National Gallery was honored to invite Hon. Bernie Bush and Chief Officer Theresa Echenique from the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Culture and Heritage, and Hon. Katherine Ebanks-Wilks MP to attend the 3rd Cayman Islands Biennial Awards Ceremony on Thursday July 13th, 2023.
Since opening, Conversations with the Past- In the Present Tense has displayed a diverse selection of thought-provoking artworks from 57 local contemporary artists. This exhibition features established and emerging artists shown at both NGCI’s exhibition space and off-site venues across the Cayman Islands including Owen Roberts International Airport, Mind’s Eye Cultural Centre, Barker’s National Park, Cayman Islands Further Education Centre, Little Cayman Museum, Cayman Brac Museum, and Gram Bella’s in North Side. This year’s biennial builds upon the first two iterations of the Cayman Islands Biennial, Cross Currents and Reimagined Futures, striving to show recent developments in the Cayman art scene while continuing to further explore our history.
This year’s Biennial focuses on how the Cayman Islands’ past continues to impact our present moment, our sense of identity, and on a larger scale, our society. Like its predecessor Reimagined Futures, the artworks featured in Conversations with the Past- In the Present Tense are organised into a series of sub-themes that address the different forms of connections and relationships people have with the past. This Biennial’s sub-themes include ‘Cultural Mythologies, ‘Sites of Memory’, and ‘Identity and its Multiple Origins’. The third Cayman Islands Biennial aims to identify ways in which history continues to reverberate in the present, as well as encouraging reflection on the role the past plays in defining both cultural and personal identities and starting conversations about the ways in which our individual and collective identity is shaped by history, memory, and subjective experience.
A month after the biennial’s official opening, artists, guests, and exhibition sponsors gathered to celebrate the creativity of everyone involved in the exhibition, and announce the artist’s winner. In the Emerging Artists Award category, Certificates of Commendation were awarded to Latoya Francis and Kerri-Anne Chisholm for ‘Written in the Foundations’, and Rochelle Miller for ‘Rolling Calf’ & ‘Duppy’. The Emerging Artist Award, an award for artists under 30, was presented to Alyssa Gilbert for ‘Celia’, a portrait of the artist embodying Long Celia, an enslaved woman in Cayman who went to trial in 1820. In the Bendel Hydes Award category, a Certificate of Commendation was presented to Babbity Barwick for her ceramic vessels ‘Red and Black’, inspired by mangrove wetlands. The evening’s overall prize, the Bendel Hydes Award, was presented to Kaitlyn Elphinstone for ‘Artificial Rendering Series’, a collaboration with DALLE.E2 (AI) that shows distorted historical photographs which are further edited by Elphinstone using appliques, textiles or 3-D printed parts. Both winning artists were presented with a Caymanite stone award handcrafted by Horacio Esteban. Along with this, the winning artist of the Bendel Hydes Award received a monetary prize and the opportunity to develop a solo exhibition with the National Gallery. The winner of the Emerging Artist Award was awarded a monetary grant towards a residency programme or training opportunity.
The evening concluded with the launch of the Biennial catalogue, which was presented to all participating artists on behalf of the National Gallery as a token of our gratitude for their creative efforts and commitment to this exhibition. Catalogues are now on sale in NGCI’s gift shop, with complimentary copies being distributed to local schools and public libraries.
We extend our thanks to the Awards Jury: Leonard Dilbert, Davin Ebanks, and Lisa Howie.
Congratulations to all the artists participating in the Biennial for their inspiring and thoughtful work. The Biennial will be on display until Friday, 29th September at NGCI and partner venues across all three venues.
