Home to Parking Lot
This painting shows the location of the artist’s former family home in George Town where his father lived for 50 years and where he and his siblings were raised. Now demolished and turned into a parking lot, it has become part of a legacy of controversial development in the capital. Solomon finds himself returning to this spot often, as if to find himself. The vibrancy of the colours poignantly contrasts with the absence of life, while the elaborate convoluted composition reflects the density of the artist’s feelings – and perhaps the complexity of determining one’s identity.
About the Artist
Gordon Solomon
b. 1977
Gordon Solomon is a painter and musician born in George Town, Grand Cayman, who studied Fine Art at the University of Superior Art, Cuba. He is a member of the Native Sons artists collective and his work is primarily concerned with Caymanian heritage, which he captures in a variety of visual styles, adopting an aesthetic that draws equally from Cubism, Pointillism, and Realism. Solomon has exhibited extensively both in the Cayman Islands and overseas and has received several public mural commissions. Solomon’s work can be found in the public collections of the Cayman Islands National Archive, the Cayman Islands National Museum, and the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands. Exhibitions at NGCI include: 21st Century Cayman (2010), Founded Upon the Seas (2012), Metamorphoses (2014), All Access (2015), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), Native Sons – Twenty Years On (2016), Saltwater in their Veins (2017), Mediating Self (2017), a solo show, Gordon Solomon – Life on the Colony (2018), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), Tropical Visions (2019), and Island of Women: Life at Home During our Maritime Years (2020).
