Close to the Bark
Close to the Bark is one of a series of artworks commissioned by the National Gallery as part of the 2010 21st Century Cayman exhibition, which sought to reimagine aspects of our traditional heritage in the contemporary experience. Using the iconic catboat sail canvas as a medium for contemporary art is an attempt to connect past to present. Bridgeman’s monochromatic treatment foregrounds the raw texture of the support, while the work’s title implies an intimate connection between nature and culture.
About the Artist
David Bridgeman
b. 1959
Born in Oxford, Bridgeman acquired a BEd (Hons) at Worcester College of Higher Education and moved to the Cayman Islands in 1987 to teach. As a professional artist, he has received important commissions from the Cayman Islands Government and from the Cayman National Cultural Foundation. His work is in private collections and the public collections of CNCF, CINM, NGCI as well as at the Governor’s Residence. He is a founding member of the Cayman art collective C4. NGCI exhibitions include: Anchored in Landscapes (2005) and Arreckly: Towards a Cultural Identity (2007), Art of Assemblage (2013), The Road Not Taken (solo show, 2014), Metamorphoses (2014), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), All Access (2015), Upon the Seas (2017), Mediating Self (2017), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), and Tropical Visions (2019).
