Sunset Moments
Taking the well-worn thematic of sunset imagery as her starting point, McCoy-Snell departs from the usual clichés—sunlight radiating across water; multi-hued clouds, or the silhouetted outlines of palm trees—focusing instead on the emotive resonance of the colours and forms she brings forth from her artistic imagination. As an artist who frequently uses an abstract visual language to convey her inner feelings, McCoy-Snell’s sunset paintings appear highly symbolic: islands floating in air, spindly trees suspended in space, with solitary figures perched on outstretched limbs or nestled under their twisting trunks. Exploiting the ambiguity inherent in these evocative scenes, the artist creates a visual universe that is far more compelling than the commercial offerings that more often define this subject.
About the Artist
Nickola McCoy-Snell
b. 1974
Born in Savannah, Grand Cayman, Nickola McCoy-Snell studied art at University College of the Cayman Islands. She rose to prominence in 2002, when she won the first McCoy Prize for Excellence in Caymanian Art. She also won CNCF’s Artistic Achievement Award in 2002 and the Honours and People’s Choice awards in The McCoy Prize in 2007. Her highly stylised paintings evoke the imagery and iconography of street art — running paint, epigrams and bolts that evoke vandalism and graffiti. A member of the Native Sons collective, McCoy-Snell has exhibited widely with the group, including See Me Ya (2007) and Native Sons’ Grass Piece (2008) at the Morgan Gallery, Grand Cayman. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery and the Cayman Islands National Archive and has featured in the NGCI exhibitions Portrait of an Artist (2003), Emergence (2005), Native Sons’ Fahive (2005), A Day in the Life (2011), All Access (2015), Native Sons – Twenty Years On (2016), Cross Currents: 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), and Tropical Visions (2019).
