Collection

Non-Verbal Form Chameleon and Alabaster

CATEGORY:
YEAR:
2014
MEDIUM:
Hand-blown glass, wood
SIZE:
8 x 8 x 7 in.

An accomplished glass sculptor, Ebanks here depicts foraminifera: ancient and tiny single-celled organisms found in our oceans. By rendering them in large scale, Ebanks highlights the beauty that is invisible to our eye, yet a key part of ocean life. The delicate nature of these pieces seems to highlight the fragile condition of our ocean — so influenced as it is by minor changes in temperature or acidity — and implores us to take care of that delicate nature.

About the Artist
Davin Ebanks

b. 1975

Born in Grand Cayman, Davin Ebanks acquired a BA in Graphic Design at Anderson University, Indiana, and an MFA in Glass Sculpture at Kent State University, Ohio. He has been artist-in-residence at Jacksonville University and Anderson University, and has taught at New York’s Urban Glass (the first and largest glass studio in the United States) at Kent State University and at Salisbury University. He won The McCoy Prize for Fine Craft in 2003 and NGCI’s 2012 Public Sculpture competition. Ebanks was one of four Caymanian artists to be recognized in A-Z of Caribbean Art (Robert & Christopher Publishers: 2019), a landmark survey of contemporary art from the Caribbean region and its diaspora. His work is included in the permanent collections of NGCI and the Cayman Islands National Museum, and has been displayed at the Glass Art Society’s Annual Conference and in numerous NGCI exhibitions, including: Blue Meridian (solo show, 2010–11), The Persistence of Memory (2011), Luminescent Forms (2014), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), All Access (2015), Upon the Seas (2017), Revive: Contemporary Caymanian Craft (2017), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), Saltwater in Their Veins (2020) and The People’s Collection: A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022).