The National Gallery
This image was created to celebrate the opening of the new NGCI facility in 2012. It formed part of a series by the artist of iconic architectural works from past and present Cayman. The extreme minimalist approach to, and use of, digital media, which is typical of the artist’s style, underpins a complex design that successfully conveys the essential quality of the NGCI building.
About the Artist
Shane “Dready” Aquârt
b. 1963
Shane Aquârt, who signs his art “Dready”, has a whimsical graphic style influenced by his rich mixture of cultural experiences: a Caribbean childhood, education at an English boarding school, a Canadian high school, and a US college. Aquârt has illustrated several publications, and his work has been extensively used in merchandising, commercial graphics, and interiors. His solo exhibition Cayman Panorama: Things That Exist Only in My Fading Memory was featured at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands in 2013, and recently installed at the Owen Roberts International Airport as part of the NGCI’s Art at the Airport project (2019). His work has featured in numerous NGCI exhibitions, including Metamorphoses (2014), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), Upon the Seas (2017), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), Reimagined Futures – 2nd Cayman Islands Biennial (2021), Thatch Roofs & Ironwood Posts (2024), and The Ties That Bind (2024).
